French poor to get broadband for €1 per day
The Register reports that the French government is intending to provide 1.2m of the country’s poorest citizens with a computer and broadband connection for €1 per day.
Over half of the French population currently use the web on a regular basis, with 38 per cent of homes connected and 10m broadband connections. However, the excluded half contains large numbers of the poor and elderly.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced the plan, which forms part of France’s committment to make public services available online, at an Interministerial Committee for the Information Society meeting on Tuesday 11th July.
Read the full article at the Register.
Something about Steve Woods
Chief scribe
That doesn’t sound a really great deal to me, although Alistair said their broadband rocked!
Having done a bit more background reading, it seems this proposed charge is not far short from normal French broadband package charges (although several seem to make some additional profit by charging a few euro a month for the modem); the only difference seems to be the free PC thrown in! Is this really such a good deal or the latest of the usual line of confidence tricks perpetrated on the poor?
Update: 6/10/06 – According to an interview I heard on Radio 4’s ‘In Business’ programme last night, this scheme now has 1.5 million subscribers.