Swisscom initiative helps “lost” users
Leading telecommunications provider Swisscom is setting up Help Points around the country to try to bridge the "digital divide" among the Swiss population.
Economics Minister Joseph Deiss has welcomed the initiative, which will provide courses in how to reap the full benefits of mobile phones and the internet.
Swisscom says the possibilities of the latest telecommunications instruments are enormous and understanding how to use them is easier than people usually think. All it needs is for someone to show the way.
To help users get up to speed with new technologies, it is setting up the so-called Help Points in partnership with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
They will be set up at fixed locations in Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Zurich, as well as on board four training buses ready to provide courses in 41 additional towns.
The offer will be expanded to cover more than 100 sites in 2006.
Technological advances
Marc Pfister, head of the Swisscom project, says that technological advances are enabling manufacturers to put more and more applications in each product. But not always to good effect.
“It increases functionality, but also requires more knowledge on the user’s part,” he added. “The telecommunications industry should get together with manufacturers to develop ways of making products more user-friendly.”
Pfister admits that Swisscom’s own shops aren’t training colleges and staff have only a limited amount of time to give advice.
“Unfortunately, many customers have trouble operating complex devices and this prevents them from using the associated services,” he said.
“That’s why Swisscom has created a range of training courses which acquaint customers with the technology and these services.”
The Help Points are not targeted solely at older people, but a pilot project has shown that people who did not grow up with new technologies often have difficulties understanding and using them.
Widening gap
“We are aware that the knowledge gap in the new media is getting even wider,” Pfister said. “Older generations in particular could miss the boat.”
Economics Minister Deiss, welcoming the move, said that modern information technology should be made available to a wider public.
He said he was pleased that about half of the Swiss population worked with the World Wide Web and e-mails every day.
Deiss commented that the Help Points were not a public relations exercise but an education initiative to try to overcome the “digital divide”.
He added that all generations, all levels of society and all regions should be better linked to the internet.
swissinfo with agencies
Swisscom at the end of 2004
Analog lines: three million
ISDN lines: 927,000
ADSL access lines: 802,000
Mobile customers: 3.9 million
Help Point courses, which start on June 6, last for about two hours and each cost SFr50 ($40).
For the current year 30,000 course places will be on offer at 41 locations.
In August 2001, Swisscom launched an initiative for all 5,000 Swiss schools to have free broadband access to the internet.
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