SCORES of residents of Stony Hill in St Andrew West Rural will not benefit from free Wi-Fi as scheduled after criminals stole an access point from the facility hours before it was opened Thursday.

Access points enable the reach of the free Wi-Fi, which is part of the Government’s programme being undertaken by the Universal Service Fund (USF) to bridge the digital gap, particularly for individuals in deep rural areas who are unable to obtain Internet service.

With the theft, two basic schools, four churches, a health centre and people waiting on buses will not be able to access the free WiFi as scheduled.

An obviously peeved chief executive officer of the USF Daniel Dawes blasted the robbers during the launch ceremony on Thursday.

“We would have spent $7.5 million to be outfitting this constituency with this important facility,” said Dawes, who noted that the plan was to erect 189 Wi-Fi hot spots across the island.

“I was like a mad bull this morning when I understood from my director of projects…that some unscrupulous person, somebody who has no conscience, went and stole one of the access points. We have been rolling out the project all across Jamaica, and we have never had one case of anybody taking what is not theirs,” added Dawes.

He urged the residents to find the culprit and call the Member of Parliament Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn so that an example could be made of them.

“It ought not to happen. This is not…mango or oranges or ackee, this is a tool to provide enhancement to the lives of our Jamaican people,” said Dawes.

In the meantime, head of the Stony Hill police Corporal Gregory Bennett urged the residents of the surrounding communities to share any information they have on the thieves.

“This [Wi-Fi hot spot] is designed to ensure that we have a safer and more progressive Stony Hill community, Golden Spring community, Lawrence Tavern community, but then we are trying to defeat this purpose and this is retarding the growth of our kids,” said Bennett.

“I would like to implore you all to take a greater step to try to stop this sort of thing to help us to help you,” added Bennett.

The USF in on track to establish 189 community Wi-Fi hot spots islandwide to facilitate increased public Internet access.

These will be in addition to 13 high-trafficked locations where the service has been established.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz has indicated that three hot spots will be established in each of the 63 constituencies.

According to Vaz, technology is essential to creating a bold and brighter future for all Jamaicans and his ministry is committed to building out the infrastructure and creating the policy, legislative and regulatory framework to make this happen.