Lord Carter's interim review on Digital
Britain is not a bad report for the MPs and people who
are clueless about the digital economy. As for the rest of us, it
fails to tell us anything we haven’t understood for a long time,
and worse, it doesn’t offer a grain of hope for the future. It
seems to be a collection of outdated and outmoded thoughts and
muddled thinking that fails to seize the essentials and present an
aspirational UK vision, writes Peter Cochrane, former chief
technologist at BT.
Where is a consideration of Web 2.0, which is already upon
us?
Where is a consideration of Web 3.0, which really will transform
everything?
Where is the realisation that asymmetric and heavily contended
2mbps services over copper networks are not remotely close to
broadband?
Where is the understanding that recognises that broadcasting and
the nature of content generation and supply is transformed by
high-speed fixed and mobile networks?
Where is the realisation that digital rights management (DRM) is
visibly dying, and that new business models and services are
emerging to transform all sectors of the digital industry?
Sad to say, this report is about old and backward thinking. It
fails to take into account what we already know and understand from
the leaders and from our own leading-edge industries, and that they
themselves are as much mired by today’s lack of bandwidth as UK
travellers are by an inadequate infrastructure. In fact, the
proposed future of this report will see us metaphorically sat in
traffic jams instead of speeding ahead.
Specifically, where is the comparison with, or aspiration to
join, the world leaders in Japan, Korea, China and Scandinavia?
For example, Japan and Korea have a 100mbps basic service for home
and office that is by law uncontended. That is, you get 100mbps up
and down, which means video conferencing really works, and so does
IPTV, and video downloading of modern sized content, and games, and
interactive services. This is not to mention that this standard is
to be upgraded to 1,000mbps in the next phase.
If the proposals in this report are realised it will not place
the UK in the first league, but where Korea and Japan some 10 years
ago. So by 2012 the UK will have slid back even further back from
where it is today. Our citizens will not be participating and
competing in the vibrant digital economy – they will be relegated
to being spectators.
It is sad to reflect that the Thatcher government prevented the
roll-out of fibre to the home in the early 1990s, and that the UK
mobile operators were later hit by a £22bn 3G licence scam by
Labour.
If only we could get ministers and their administrations to see
and understand what is required to help the UK as a nation move
forwards.
In the interim we have seen one study group, commission and
report after another all display a fundamental lack of
understanding. A case in point are the proposals for the new UK
Council for Child Internet Safety to report directly to the prime
minister. The prime minister! Why? And yet another body to manage
the DRM situation. And how about competing infrastructures – now
that’s clever – let’s waste even more resources!
Let’s just think what we could be doing. The UK has more optical
fibre in the ground per capita than any other nation, and most of
it is either unlit or so underused it is hard to believe. We also
have more unused radio spectrum devoted to the military than most
nations. This could be freed up for civil use or shared. About 85%
of the population live within 1km of an optical fibre. So bandwidth
and reach we have in abundance, and this is positively compounded
by the fact that we are geographically a compact nation.
Another hidden resource are the generous duct tracts that span
the UK. Get the old copper cables out and you certainly don’t have
to dig up roads, and especially if you use a combination of
overhead fibre or wireless drops for the last 50m to 200m. So no
big civil engineering bills either.
New installation, ownership, business models and modes of
operation are also a great opportunity, but I just ran out of
space….