From school children to ‘silver surfers’, nobody will be left behind
One of the biggest motivators behind the development of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) is to ensure that everyone can enjoy the opportunities that high quality connectivity unlocks. With so many rural populations, many of which are situated on islands, Ireland has a real risk of creating a significant digital divide, where entire communities are left behind.
But now, with the NBP beginning to be rolled out, this should no longer be an issue, allowing discussions around the digital divide to finally evolve beyond just network access limitations.
“We’ve been talking for the last 10 years about the digital divide,” said Fergal Mulligan, Programme Director at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. “That was really about network availability. But now the digital divide term has now moved on to where it is now about the availability of devices, education, and training. We see that really exacerbated with Covid. There is a significant cohort of people out there who simply do not have the technology we have…read more on TotalTele.com »