GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland – Hundreds of residents in Westmoreland are now benefiting from free high-speed Internet under the Universal Service Fund’s (USF) Community Wi-Fi Programme.

In the constituency of Westmoreland Western alone, over $7 million has already been spent by the USF to establish three free community Wi-Fi access points in the constituency, the latest of which was officially launched in Grange Hill last week.

Two other communities — Friendship and Little London — in the constituency are scheduled to get the service in the near future.

During a ceremony held in Grange Hill Square to make the official commissioning of the service, USF’s CEO Daniel Dawes encouraged community members to report any outages observed, stressing that the fund pays a monthly Internet bill.

“So, that is why I keep saying that the ISP (internet service provider), the Flow, gives us the quality of service that we are paying for because we don’t want to know that we are paying for something that the people are not receiving,” Dawes explained.

Deedra Davis, a student of Grange Hill High School, who does not have broadband service at home and has to depend on data from her mobile phone to access the Internet, said she plans to utilise the community Wi-Fi service whenever she has schoolwork.

Grange Hill resident Christopher Leslie was overjoyed, noting that, “having the Wi-Fi in Grange Hill is a very good thing for the youths to come out and do their work. It is the first very good thing I ever see to happen to Grange Hill,” he told the Jamaica Observer West.

The father of two noted that he had to contend with sending his children to the homes of his neighbours, not only to access their Internet service but also to use their tablet devices for classes.

Director of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Grange Hill, Reverend Michael Salmon, said the free community Wi-Fi service will be of great assistance to students who are not able to afford broadband Internet or mobile data service.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmoreland Western (Jamaica Labour Party) Morland Wilson argued that apart from a number of students being unable to afford Internet and data, 12 of the 18 schools within his constituency do not have access to the Internet for various reasons.

“You have Internet service providers not offering their service in a particular location. You also have an issue of some schools unable to come up with the financing to consistently pay for the Internet. So, it varies across schools and does vary across the different areas across the constituency because we must be reminded that this is a rural community and you have the inner regions of the constituency that finds it hard to access these forms of technological services. In fact, we have a few communities without electricity, much less to have Internet,” Wilson explained.

He further argued that ways must be found to hold telecommunication companies accountable, “as on several occasions there is service outage for days and bills are not prorated.”

“I think that we seriously have to look at our consumer laws because when we are paying our Internet bills we are charged monthly, however, when service goes out for two to three days our bills are not prorated. We are still charged for service not rendered. So, I think that we really need to take a serious look at how we manage our service delivery to the people of Jamaica,” Wilson argued.

Following the launch in Grange Hill, another community Wi-Fi service was launched on Cooke Street in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland’s capital.

Cooke Street resident Abijah Wallace, a second-year teacher in training, who is majoring in business education and office system administration at Bethlehem Moravian College in St Elizabeth, said he is happy for the service as not many people in the community have the Internet at home. He told the Observer West that prior to the official launch he and other community members have been enjoying a test run of the service.

“I really like it (Internet service) because it (Wi-Fi router) is at my gate, so I have full bars on it (device) and there are also two more in the community. So, it is actually working,” said Wallace, adding that “I have noticed a lot of students here doing their school work right throughout the day.”

Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Central George Wright, in his remarks at the launch, encouraged the Cooke Street parents to ensure that their children “stay connected in school,” as he stressed the importance of the Internet.

Poppy Street in George’s Plain and Withorn, both in the Westmoreland Central constituency, are expected to get the free Wi-Fi service soon, as well as Whitehouse, Darliston and Bethel Town in the neighbouring constituency of Westmoreland Eastern.

Apart from the community Wi-Fi services that are located in areas outside of major towns, there is the public Wi-Fi that serves major towns across the island.

The town of Savanna-la-Mar is scheduled to get public Wi-Fi service by the end of the month. Morant Bay, Black River, Lucea, Falmouth, Port Maria and Spanish Town are next on the list to benefit from the public Wi-Fi service, by the end of March next year.