Singtel moves to help Singapore's elderly bridge the digital divide

Singtel has launched a new digital inclusion initiative so that Singapore’s elderly don’t get left behind as the country pushes ahead in its digitalisation efforts.

Under the Donate Your Data programme, Singtel‘s Gomo customers donate their unused data to seniors via the Gomo mobile app in 5GB blocks. Singtel added that they plan to rollout the programme to all of their customers. This means that Gomo subscribers will be able to enjoy the data that they normally use during the month and donate whatever remains at the end of their billing cycle.

Gomo customer, Amanda Goh, said:

It’s great that I can now donate my excess data and make a difference by helping seniors in the community who cannot afford to be connected at all times. The best part is that I have the flexibility to donate different amounts each month, depending on my own usage, and it’s also very easy and convenient to just click on a button and donate via the mobile app.

Singtel will partner with NTUC Health to consolidate the donated data into prepaid hi! SIM cards to be distributed to seniors across NTUC Health’s Senior Activity Centres. Singtel added that they hope to scale up the programme to reach 10,000 seniors and needy beneficiaries across more social service agencies.

One use for the donated data by the elderly would be for digital literacy programmes conducted by Singtel and NTUC Health so seniors can pick up basic digital knowledge such as how to use a smartphone to access the Internet.

Annie Tan, who has been visiting an NTUC Health centre for the past two years said:

Last year, I attended some online courses on how to use my smartphone. I’m very happy to get this SIM card today. With the data, I can now access the Internet conveniently and learn new things online.

While Singtel was unable to give an exact amount of data donated since the launch of the programme, they did say that a healthy amount had been donated since the soft launch on March 11, 2022.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.