Redmond continues announcing new deals for its Office 365 service left and right, both corporate and nonprofit. And back in October the company announced Student Advantage, a new program that offer students a way to access Office 365 ProPlus for free.
The deal is valid for educational institutions that have already signed up to use it, or Office Professional Plus for faculty and administrative staff members.
And now the company has revealed a new agreement with the Sao Paolo Department of Education that will bring the new Office 365 for free to more than 4 million students. This, Microsoft says, represents an investment of $900 million — based on individual prices of Office 365 subscriptions.
The company explained this, saying:
“In Brazil, the Sao Paolo State Department of Education will be the first to reap the benefits of Student Advantage, offering its students access to the complete version of Office 365 ProPlus at no additional cost. Students from the state education network will be able to use Office 365 tools on up to five devices, including smartphones and tablets.”
Students will get unlimited access to productivity software like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on up to five different devices, from desktop computers, to laptops, tablets even smartphones.
Microsoft claims that this is the biggest education agreement in its history, in terms of scale. The program is set to begin on December 1.
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I say go for it. Let people experience a free or affordable Office is what made it such a success in the past. Products improve faster when more people use them