Broadband for Six Million Poor Top Priority, Says Martha Lane Fox July 23, 2009
In her first speech today as, Britain’s Digital Inclusion Champion, Martha Lane Fox categorically stated that providing broadband connectivity to Britain’s six million poorest citizens is her first priority.
Martha Lane Fox was speaking at the Reboot Britain conference held in London, where she made this announcement. She has been appointed to the post of Digital Inclusion Champion after the release of the Government’s Digital Britain report, which envisages such a role to help spread broadband access to the whole of the country and to the low-income group people in particular.
Since her appointment, Fox has been around the country visiting a number of UK Online Centres to meet the first-time internet users and understand their queries and concerns, according to BBC reports.
During the course of her speech, Fox outlined the fact that 80% of the government’s interactions happen with the poorest 25% of the population, and that the government as a result had a large amount of information on these people, which means that targeting them for such schemes would be quite practical. Getting these people access to broadband is not only the right thing to do, she said, it would also help reduce the cost of governance, as the government will be able to save money through digital communication.
Outlining her plans, Fox stated that she intends to spend at least two days a week working on the Government’s digital inclusion project and any citizen who wished to follow her progress can check her Twitter page at www.twitter.com/Marthalanefox. Or for a more straightforward look at the situation look at Broadband Genie, for provider reviews and news from the likes of Be Broadband and the other top internet service providers.
