UPDATE Deprived Areas Across England to Benefit from FREE WiFi

[Scubbie]

UPDATE Deprived Areas Across England to Benefit from FREE WiFi - ISPreview UK

Some 57 libraries and 13 community centres across deprived areas of England will soon be provided with free WiFi and digital support as part of a new agreement between BT and Barclays. Another 10 sites including a care home, a charity home and a homeless centre will also benefit and more will follow.

Apparently specially trained members of Barclays staff will, under the Barclays Digital Eagles initiative, also provide free technology advice to customers and non-customers alike at the same sites. The idea is to help local people build confidence and develop the skills they need to succeed.

Anna Easton, BT’s Connected Society Programme Boss, said:

“At BT we believe in the power of communication to make a better world. We want to ensure that everyone can not only access the digital world, but also have the skills and support they need to stay online in the long term.

An evaluation of our existing digital inclusion programmes shows that for the elderly and unemployed, both access and long term support in the community is essential. This new partnership with Barclays will ensure that support is available for those that need it the most.”

It’s known that around 6 million adults have never used the Internet and most of those are either very old or suffer from some sort of disability, which are two groups that the new effort hopes to help.

Both BT and Barclays have also committed to support the implementation of the government’s Digital Inclusion Strategy, which aims to reduce the number of people offline in the UK by 25% come 2016.

UPDATE 2:41pm

The full list of sites can be found below.

Location	Site
Aldeburgh	The Fairfield Centre
Ballymena (NI)	Ballymena Livestock Market
Barnsley	Kendray
Bath & North East Somerset	Weston
Blackburn with Darwen	Blackburn Central
Blackburn with Darwen	Roman Road
Bolton	High Street
Bradford	Aspire-I ltd
Bromley	Shortlands
Bromley	Beckenham
Buckinghamshire	West Wycombe
Bury	Unsworth
Bury	Tottington
Cheshire	Leonard Chesire – Hill House
Coventry	Aldermoor
Coventry	Hillifields
Coventry	Jubilee Crescent
Cumbria	Barrow Island
Cumbria	Carlisle
Cumbria	Keswick
Darlington
Devon	Pinhoe
Durham	Belmont
East Sussex	Hastings
East Sussex	Langney
Falmouth	Dracaena Centre
Gateshead	St Mary’s Heritage Centre
Gloucestershire	Stroud
Gloucestershire	Tewkesbury
Hartlepool	Throston Grange
Herefordshire	Weobley
Herefordshire	Belmont
Huyton, Liverpool	Roby Community Hub(Age UK)
Kent	Ashen Drive
Kent	Bockhanger
Kent	Riverhead
Kent	Shepway
Kent	Temple Hill
Kent	Minster in Thanet
Kent	Sturry
Kingston-upon-Hull	Issac Newton
Kingston-upon-Hull	Longhill
Leicester	Rupert House
Lincolnshire	Boultham
Lincolnshire	Holbeach
Loftus, Cleveland and Redcar	The Old Co-Op Community Building
Market Hill, Scunthorpe	Tennents association room -North lincolnshire Holmes
Medway	Cuxton
Melton Mowbury	Cattle Market
Middlesbrough	Central
Middlesbrough	Acklam
Northeast Lincolnshire	Cleethorpes
Oxfordshire	Kennington
Pembroke Dock	The Pater Hall Trust
Peterborough	Dogsthorpe
Peterborough	Woodston
Reading	Palmer Park
Reading	Whitley
Redcar & Cleveland	Dormanstown
Salford	Emmaus House
Sefton	Bootle
Sefton	Crosby
Sheffield	32 Westfield Centre
Sheffield	Newfield Green
Slough	Chalvey
Southwark	East Street
Southwark	Nunhead
Stanhope	Dales Centre
Stockport	2nd romiley scout hut
Sunderland	Farringdon Jubilee Centre
Sunderland	Unity Sunderland
Sunderland	Sunderland Women’s Centre
Sunderland	Roker Church
Swindon	West Swindon
Turo	Lodge and Thomas
Twickenham	Cambridge Park Bowls Club
Wakefield	Knottingley
Whitwick, Coalville	Keenglen Care Home Limited T/as Silver Oaks Care Home
Windsor & Maidenhead	Old Windsor
Wokingham	Arborfield Container

[seawright]

With Hull in the list does that mean that Kingston Communications are also onboard?

[Scubbie]

The source for this story is via BT's Press Release, so I suspect that KCM are not involved.