{"id":214,"date":"2009-02-05T15:25:45","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T15:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/?p=214"},"modified":"2009-02-05T15:54:39","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T15:54:39","slug":"digital-britain-wheres-real-universal-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/?p=214","title":{"rendered":"“Digital Britain” – where’s real universal access?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve finally had a chance to read the interim “Digital Britain”<\/a> report prepared by Simon Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting.\u00a0 The report surveys a vast swathe of issues including copyright, radio spectrum reform, and television.\u00a0 I was most interested in what it had to say about responsibilities for providing next generation (higher speed, fibre or 4G broadband) access, universal service, and digital inclusion.<\/p>\n

Next generation access (NGA) is important because most of Britain’s internet traffic currently runs on copper. Broadband on copper can be slow, and congested. The telecom operators have not invested in fibre in many parts of the country, and that is part of the rationale for spurring investment in NGA.\u00a0 But the report stays far, far away from any suggestion that rural or deprived areas would benefit:<\/p>\n

Competing NGA infrastructures can drive down prices. But they can also drive
\navailability, particularly as mobile operators seeks to offer users the additional benefits
\nof mobility at increasingly higher speeds, and make available national offers which
\nfixed line players have to counter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If these investments are carried to completion, we can reasonably expect at least half
\nof the UK population to have access to NGA services and possibly a periphery around
\nthat- perhaps as much as 60 per cent or even more. (p.18)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm, half the population?\u00a0 As for the actual implementation plans, the report’s Actions mainly concern how to support a market-driven approach.\u00a0 There is mention of the Community Broadband Network<\/a>‘s fibre projects, and the creation of an umbrella group to provide technical support to community networks.\u00a0 This will certainly help community networks get access to technical help, but as lots of research has already shown, there is no “out of the box” recipe for a successful community network.\u00a0 They often provide benefits beyond connectivity in “market failure” environments.\u00a0 Ofcom’s Consumer Pane<\/a>l recently published a report<\/a> describing almost forty community projects aimed at developing local NGA.<\/p>\n

So is everyone going to get universal NGA?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 The report suggests that there will be a universal service guarantee – but it’s to provide 2.0Mb\/second – by 2012.\u00a0 With all this talk of next-generation networks, that seems a little bit like an advance apology for selling short some parts of the country.\u00a0 The justification for the 2Mb level is based on British Telecom’s current service level, which leaves 1.75 million people unserved by 2Mb coverage.<\/p>\n

All of this suggests a certain level of caution and “letting the market decide.”\u00a0 But this could mean that Britain doesn’t ultimately capitalize on its potential.\u00a0 There’s already been lots of criticism <\/a>of the plan, and I agree that it doesn’t propose clear strategies, instead proposing the creation of “Task Forces” “Agencies” and “Umbrella Bodies.”\u00a0 The Obama government has made investment in broadband infrastructure a key part of its economic recovery plans<\/a>.\u00a0 We should expect a bit more audacity – and forethought – from Carter and the British government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve finally had a chance to read the interim “Digital Britain” report prepared by Simon Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting.\u00a0 The report surveys a vast swathe of issues including copyright, radio spectrum reform, and television.\u00a0 I was most interested in what it had to say about responsibilities for providing next generation (higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-informatics","category-oii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pUfdR-3s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonpowell.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}