UPDATE Deprived Areas Across England to Benefit from FREE WiFi

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.