Ogilvy & Mather has been chosen by the government to get the UK online after the agency beat D'Arcy & Grey in a three-way pitch.

O&M will create a fully integrated campaign, due to break this year across different media, to promote a network of learning centres and a government portal. It will be a long-running campaign, the aim of which will be get the whole country onto the internet.

The budget for the campaign has not been disclosed, but the size and duration of the drive would suggest that the government is expected to invest a substantial sum in marketing the initiative.

Free learning centres will be set up across the country and private-public partnerships will be extablished, so that users can get online for the cost of a cut-price phone call.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, recently promised to deliver 452 public services electronically by 2005, a date that was brought forward in April from 2008. More than one third - 152 - of those services are already online, including the National Statistics site, Companies House and Ordnance Survey.