WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018
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Got kids? Get free internet EMILY IRELAND If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. But that’s not the case with an offer of heavily discounted internet for Wairarapa families battling the digital divide. Masterton District Library digital services manager Paul Greville is conducting ‘Spark Jump’ courses at the library, a free programme which sets people up with a 4G router pre-loaded with 30GB of data to use. And the best part? Once that data is used, it’s only $10 to top it up with another 30GB – a price so cheap, it’s not even comparable to other offers available for internet. Mr Greville said based on the latest Census statistics (2013), 76.8 per cent of New Zealand had internet access in their homes. In Masterton it was only 65.6 per cent, and on the East Side, it was only 52.4 per cent. Carterton, Greytown, and Martinborough punched above their weight, but still failed to reach the national average at a respective 71.2 per cent, 72.5 per cent, and 70.3 per cent. Featherston sat at only 62.5 per cent uptake. “Our main problem is that people know about this programme, but they don’t believe it,” Mr Greville said. “We get the ‘too good to be true’
crowd – people turning up to take the course with money in their pocket expecting someone to pivot on them with unexpected costs, but that is not the case.” The Spark Jump programme was designed for families in low-income communities with school-age children who don’t have a broadband connection at home. “In a community that is suffering for digital inclusion as much as we are, everyone should be on board with this,” Mr Greville said. “People are being left behind and that is a real cause for concern, because if we are going to have a functioning society, we can’t cut out anyone who is not in the city, over a certain age, or anyone whose parents were too poor to get a broadband connection at a particular, essential five-year window. “Those are the people that are being left behind.”
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Paul Greville of the Masterton District Library wants to bridge the digital divide. PHOTO/EMILY IRELAND
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