IT access for low-income areas
GOVERNMENT is to make US$3.5 million available to support the expansion of internet access in low-income communities in order to bridge the digital divide, according to Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell.
Speaking in the sectoral debate in Parliament last Wednesday, Paulwell said this was part of a US$23 million ICT development project signed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) last month.
He said the money would be used to support the establishment or improvement of 60 Community Access Points (CAPs) in locations that would ordinarily be passed over by commercial providers. The main objective of the programme, the minister said, was to enable low-income citizens to gain access to information and services on-line.
Paulwell referred to the recently published JAMPRO-sponsored study of the internet market, and said awareness of the internet was now almost universal with 91 per cent of Jamaicans being aware of it. He said 80 per cent of the non-users were interested in becoming users.
The provision of internet service through the public institutions, he said, was therefore most critical to facilitating the development goal of creating a knowledge-based society.
The minister noted the growth in voice telephony since the start of the liberalisation process in 1999 and said 1.8 million of the 2.6 million Jamaican population had telephones — either fixed line or mobile. He said despite this phenomenal growth, voice telephone alone could not empower the Jamaican people. It was this realisation, he said, which caused the Government to shift its emphasis from voice telephony to the provision of data services, coupled with an increase in high-speed access to the internet, allowing for the delivery of broadband services.
The US$3.5 million will, among other things, be used to finance computer hardware and software. It will also be used to provide scholarships for two-thirds of the cost of basic computer training by low-income users, as well as absorb half the cost of computer time used by school teachers, community groups or individuals with worthwhile community development initiatives.
The minister said the IDB project had three other components. These include:
* the institutional strengthening of the ministry to play a leading role in increasing Jamaica’s e-readiness,
* support for increased use of ICT in the public sector
* and a human capital development component of US$4.7 million to fund training at Jamaican institutions with a good track record.
He said this project would finance two-thirds of the cost of ICT training for some 900 eligible individuals over the next five years.