With the income ceiling for qualifying for this scheme raised, a bigger number of families will pay no more than a quarter of the price of a desktop or laptop machine, with a broadband connection thrown in.

And everyone else now surfing the Internet at the Wireless@SG hot spots will be able to do so at twice the speed. Added to this: The service will remain free for another four years.

This raft of initiatives was announced yesterday by the Acting Minister for Information, Communications & the Arts, Rear Admiral (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, at the opening of the four-day Infocomm Media Business Exchange, Asia's largest technology show, at the Singapore Expo.

The enhancements to the Neu PC Plus scheme for needy families take effect on July 1. Families with a household income of $2,500 or less will be eligible to buy subsidised computers.

With the income ceiling previously pegged at $2,000, 27,000 low-income households bought desktop computers. Laptops have not been an option till now.

Another enhancement to the Neu PC Plus scheme is that such families will become eligible for a new computer every four years instead of five.

And for low-income families which already have computers or do not need to buy a new one yet, the Government will offer them a 1Mbps broadband connection at just $1.50 a month.

Families may apply to get on the scheme through volunteer welfare organisations or their children's schools.

As for the improvements to the Wireless@SG service: The 430,000 people who spend a monthly average of 3.6 hours on board the network of hot spots will speed through the Internet at 1Mbps from September.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.