Brazil to open Post Office internet booths, to pull 150 million out of digital gap
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) _ Brazil is pledging to install Internet booths in 4,000 post offices next year, giving free Web access to some 150 million people in a massive effort to bridge the country’s gaping digital divide, President Fernando Henrique Carodoso announced Tuesday.
In his regular weekly radio address to the nation, Cardoso promised to “guarantee one of the great conquests of the modern world to 150 million Brazilians.” Starting next year, 4,000 free access Internet kiosks will be placed in post offices, initially in towns and cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants. Further kiosks would then be installed in other, smaller towns across Latin America’s biggest country, Cardoso said.
“The Internet, contrary to what many people still think, is of great use to all people,” said Cardoso. “Citizens who have business with organs of the federal government _ like pension requests, taxes, juridical questions or even a project in Congress, need the Internet. Poor students need the Net for their research.”
Cardoso said there would be special equipment available so physically handicapped people could access the booths.
He said the Ministry of Communications would announce on Nov. 26 which companies were bidding to install the kiosks. The first wave of installations would be finished in early 2002, Cardos said.
Although Brazil is home to some of the world’s most sophisticated websites and Internet designers, only a tiny proportion of the country’s 170 million have full access to the World Wide Web. The country counts some 12 million residential users, which, although proportionately small, is still the highest number of Internet users in Latin America.
