The Press Porch

In UK nearly 270,000 low income families are all set to receive free laptops and broadband connections. This new scheme is the brainchild of Prime Minister Gordon Brown who first announced the proposals in September 2008. After two successful trials in February 2009 this scheme is all set to be implemented now. It is interesting to note that Mr. Brown had expressed his intention of implementing such a plan as a chancellor back in 1999.

This scheme is being termed the Home Access initiative and a budget of £300m has been earmarked for the scheme. Under this plan 270,000 low income families will be selected and each family will be provided with a laptop and broadband connection. Both these will be funded by the government, but the paid internet connection will only be valid for a year. If the family decides to continue the internet connection service after a year, they can do so by paying the renewal charges.

The government has already asked people to apply for the grant and hopes to complete the procedure by issuing the machines by 2011. While deciding on the families who will benefit from this scheme the government will not give any preference to the children already identified as hailing from low income groups by way of qualifying for the free mid-day meals in their schools. The government hopes that this scheme will be a positive step towards building a digital society.

If you require more information on either broadband or mobile broadband, a good place to check out is the independent consumer website Broadband Genie. They offer information and free advice; it’s a good site to get started on the internet with free laptop with broadband offers from all the various service providers.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Consumism, Living With Technology, Telecommunication Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.