National Digitalisation Movement Gathers Momentum

SINGAPORE – 29 JUN 2020

SG Digital, the national digitalisation movement to ensure everyone continues to have a place in Singapore’s digital future, is gaining momentum. More industry and community partners have come on board to offer programmes and support to help seniors in their digital journey.

Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran said, “The national movement to accelerate Singapore’s digitalisation is gaining strong momentum. It is not just the Government doubling down on its efforts. Many corporate, community and individual volunteers are also raising their hands and partnering the Government to help everyone in our society to go digital. Working together, we are now focusing our efforts to understand and address the concerns of different segments of our society, including seniors and hawkers. Everyone can play a part to make a meaningful and material difference in Singapore’s digitalisation efforts. We welcome more to join us in our national digitalisation movement.”

Seniors Go Digital makes good progress

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (“IMDA”) launched the Seniors Go Digital programme in May 2020 to help seniors embrace digitalisation so that they can lead more engaged, informed and fulfilling lives. IMDA expects to reach out to, and raise the digital skills of 100,000 seniors by the end of this year through the programme.

Digital access support

Access to connectivity is key to ensuring that everyone will be able to enjoy digital services. IMDA has worked with mobile service providers to offer two types of connectivity plans for seniors, in support of Seniors Go Digital programme.

• Seniors Go Digital mobile plans

  Mobile service providers - Circles.Life, M1, Singtel, StarHub, and TPG – will offer customised Seniors Go Digital mobile plans to support seniors’ access to mobile broadband services. These special plans, available to all seniors, offer larger data bundles at a lower cost, to give seniors the confidence to enjoy the benefits that digital services bring. Different operators will be offering a variety of price plans and service offerings, to give seniors more choice in the plans that best meet their needs. Mobile service providers will be making their Seniors Go Digital plans available progressively from today.

 

• Mobile Access for Seniors

  Available to lower-income seniors¹ who want to go digital but cannot afford smartphones and mobile plans, IMDA’s Mobile Access for Seniors programme will offer eligible seniors a subsidised smartphone bundled with a one-year subsidised mobile data plan from M1, Singtel, StarHub or TPG. Eligible seniors can choose to purchase a basic smartphone with co-payment starting from $20, bundled with $5² monthly mobile plans that offer at least 5GB of data³. These plans will include complimentary value-added services like caller number display, and cybersecurity protection, among others². There will also be no excess data charges⁴ so seniors have greater peace of mind when using mobile data. Eligible seniors may register their interest with Digital Ambassadors after they have attended the Seniors Go Digital - Learning programme at SG Digital Office (SDO) to acquire at least one (1) basic digital skill. The Mobile Access for Seniors plans will be available for signup in July.

More industry and community partners have come onboard

• Youth Corps volunteers to support outreach

  From July 2020, more than 300 youth volunteers from Youth Corps Singapore will be reaching out to vulnerable seniors from 40 social service agencies, including Family Service Centres (FSCs) and Senior Activity Centres (SACs) to support their digital journey. These volunteers will help these seniors pick up relevant digital skills, such as on using digital devices, communicating online and practising good cybersecurity hygiene. Apart from Youth Corps, IMDA is also working with other community partners such as Heartware Network to reach out to vulnerable seniors.

 

• $1 Million Donation from ST Engineering

  ST Engineering has donated $1 million to IMDA’s Digital Access Programmes (DAP). This will be channelled to fund programmes such as the NEU PC Plus, Home Access and the Mobile Access for Seniors, which aim to ensure that low-income households and individuals, including seniors, have access to digital devices and connectivity. This donation is the single largest contribution to the DAP to date, and is expected to support about 4,500 beneficiaries over the next 12 months. This includes lower-income seniors who cannot afford the Mobile Access for Seniors co-payment.

Said Mr Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive, IMDA: “COVID-19 has underscored the importance of connectivity in helping every one stay connected to carry out their daily activities. This is key to our resilience as a society and a nation. I am very heartened to see the industry and community partners stepping forward to join us in helping everyone go digital, especially our most vulnerable segments, and I hope to see more partners support this important national effort.”

Resources:

• Annex: Seniors Go Digital Programme (402.57KB)