Home Access Free broadband scheme to be rolled out by Opal

Home Access, the government sponsored free laptop and broadband scheme for low income families has been launched in Yorkshire.

Under the scheme, around 270,000 UK families will get a laptop and one year broadband that worth up to £528. The nation-wide campaign would cost more than £300 million for the government.

The government expects that as many as children of age group 7 to 14 years should have broadband access at their home. The disadvantaged children from low income families should not be left behind as home web access can help them to develop computer skills and improve general learning, the government believes.

A recent study showed that a third of the UK families do not take a home broadband connection as they think its is expensive. According to Point Topic, which conducted the survey, there are over 4 million children in UK without regular broadband access. The analyst firm has warned that these children could miss out many career opportunities later in their lives.

The Yorkshire Post reports that NS Optimium , the ICT schools provider has selected the IT company, Opal to roll out the scheme.