Everything Everywhere partners with Go ON charity to make the UK the world’s most digitally capable nation

UK telecoms company, Everything Everywhere, which encompasses Orange and T-Mobile brands, has become a founding partner of the cross-sector charity Go ON, which aims to make the UK the world’s most digitally capable nation.

Go ON is an ambitious organisation, it aims to use its cross-sector partnerships to “make the UK  the world’s most digitally capable nation” where no one is left behind regardless of age, status or size of organisation.

Everything Everywhere, has pledged support in helping to bring the social, economic and cultural benefits of the Internet to every individual and every organisation in the country. The company is the only UK mobile operator among the eight founding partners, which include the Lloyds Banking Group, EON, the Post Office and Age UK.

Go ON is trying to get more individuals and organisations online to solve some specific problems. According to its site, only 14 per cent of SMEs sell products and services online, ICT is the biggest skills-gap in the charity sector and 8.12 million people have never used the Internet.

For those of use who spend the majority of our time connected, it’s a good reminder that there is a large enough percentage of the population that does not have our advantage when it comes to accessing information or making businesses more accessible for starters.

Increasing mobile access

Everyone Everywhere acknowledges that in its statement today that many people who are not online at home are active mobile users and have ready access to the internet. Nine out of ten people in the UK now own a mobile phone and one in seven households are now mobile-only. So having a mobile operator in the mix for Go ON looks like a pretty smart move.

Everything Everywhere also recently announced plans to invest £1.5bn on updating mobile infrastructure and rolling out 4G services this year, with regulatory approval. The hope is that this boost will create a more reliable service for users hoping to get online from their mobile devices, especially those in rural areas where getting high-speed broadband at home can be a trial.

It’s easy to think that your familiar online world is one where almost everyone can do anything, but as Go ON points out, there is still a lot of work to do in order to bring more people to the Internet. Let’s hope that going mobile will go some way to bridging that gap.

Image Credit: Shirokazan

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