Help seniors go cashless by increasing Wi-Fi hotspots islandwide

More services being introduced by organisations revolve around the need to use phone apps (Nets to roll out new digital payment modes islandwide by mid-2018; Sept 13).

With the move towards a cashless society, I encourage policymakers and stakeholders to consider citizens who are not so tech-savvy.

Quite a number of the elderly use prepaid cards, which provide a basic phone line and no monthly subscription to worry about — more than enough for most of them. The downside is that such cards do not come with data.

Hence using mobile apps or scanning QR codes for payment can be tricky. A data plan could also be costly for them. With the Infocomm Media Development Authority promoting Wireless@SG, perhaps it can install more Wi-Fi hotspots islandwide.

This would provide seniors with free data and, in turn, encourage them to use their mobile phone for cashless transactions, not only at shopping centres but also bus stops, hawker centres and markets.

Let us remember that not everyone has a mobile data plan. Sometimes, this group is looking for the simplest way to perform a transaction if it must be cashless.