New digital champion wants poor to get online

10:52 9th July 2009

Newly appointed 'digital champion' Martha Lane Fox has said she will focus her efforts on people who have least access to the internet.

Ms Lane Fox told the Reboot conference there are 17 million British people not online and of these she wants to target the six million "that are at the bottom of the pile".

By helping people to become more familiar with the internet she hopes to be able to close the digital divide and give people greater access to government services.

People short on IT skills can start a computer course and those interested in building their own websites can study specialised web development courses.

Currently, telecoms firm BT owns most of the UK's telephone network through which many people connect to the internet.

By upgrading its copper wires to a fibre-based network, BT hopes to increase connection speeds and bring more content into people's homes.

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