http://tinyurl.com/yhvc533 More than 10 million adults across the UK have never used the internet, according to a new report commissioned by Martha Lane Fox, the government’s Digital Inclusion Champion.
No shit Martha? Well perhaps they don't want to ~ and who can blame them?
The research is the first piece of work to emerge from Lane Fox’s Digital Inclusion team since the web entrepreneur, most famous for co-founding lastminute.com, was hired by Gordon Brown, in June 2009, to represent people not yet online and create a plan to bring the web to the socially disadvantaged.
It also found that all households without the internet are missing out on an average saving of £560 per year. This is because it is cheaper to pay bills online and shop around for the best deals. The four million economically disadvantaged families are missing out on savings of over £1 billion a year.
Now that is utter bollox as it does not explain where these economically deprived households are going to get the wherewithal to buy the computer, rent broadband access, open a bank account to enable them to make all these fantastic savings. So let's look at that shall we?
PC even half way decent capable of maintaining an on line presence = £300 (yes you can buy cheaper but not if you want it to last and don't forget the printer.)
Telephone Line Rental = £12.50 a month = £150 pa
Broadband Access with cable connection to PC = £20 per month = £240 pa
Now we must assume that these economically deprived people have a good enough credit rating to be accepted for an 18 month telephone line rental and similar for broadband but never the less they need to find the initial £300 to buy the equipment and then commit to spending a further £390 per annum to run it. On top of that there are running costs (paper, ink etc which have to be met.) Frankly most people in the circumstances that this "initiative" is supposed to help would rather spend that sort of money on food and clothing. Let's not forget that the chances are that they don't have a bank account so they cannot access the Direct Debit payment schemes that claim to save them money and therefore they won't be able to get a telephone line or broadband account.
So the whole thing is utter tosh!
I could go on but must consider my blood pressure.
