07 May 2020
Public Works
Broadband for all.
By John Watson
When he said “Nothing ever becomes real ‘till it is experienced” Keats could have been thinking about the internet and the experience of its potential which lockdown has given us. Yes, of course, we already knew it was there, that the superfast broadband was unbelievably quick, that the best way to transmit the signal was through fibre. We had all sent emails and joined Facebook; many of us regularly bought and sold things online. But the way in which Zoom and WhatsApp can be used to replace meetings and even drinks parties has been something of a revelation. We have all got better at it too; the fact that the children are in a different bubble often meaning that we have had to run it ourselves; suddenly we are more competent than we would have believed possible.
No doubt it would have happened anyway. People were gradually learning how to use cyber space and in time it would have become the universal form of communication. But lockdown has accelerated progress by showing how well it can work in situations where it might have been slow to catch on before. Do you remember the argument about whether doctors should hold online surgeries? How old-fashioned that sounds now. Of course physical appointments will not disappear but much will be done remotely and the relationship between doctor and patient will change accordingly. Do you like reading stories to your grandchildren? Previously that would have been one of the pleasures of visiting them but now you can read to them just as well over WhatsApp, from a different house, from a different town, from a different continent. What a great way of bringing the generations together.
It isn’t going to stop there. You hear of old people in nursing homes having no one to speak to. Once that would have been regarded as an inevitable consequence of the callousness of the human race, but now the question comes up immediately; ‘Why don’t they have screens? Why can’t they chat with their children and grandchildren online? Why aren’t they joining chat rooms with others who would like to talk?’
There is no going back now. Online communications have become a part of day to day activities in a way which was not formerly the case. We meet friends online. We learn online. We hold meetings online, and before long it will probably be possible to do so in 3D so that other attendees seem to be arranged round the same table. You can argue that this is a good thing or you can argue that the increased distancing in human communications is bad, but actually that is entirely beside the point. There is no doubt which path leads forward and, like it or not, it is the path we are all destined to tread.
“All”? That is the rub. Two lots of people will find it difficult to participate in this revolution. One is those who simply cannot get used to working the machines. The market will probably take care of that. It cannot be long before we see very basic computers trading functionality for ease of operation. A group of people who cannot operate computers is an opportunity and no doubt devices are being designed to fill that gap.
The other group is those who do not have good Internet connections and that is less tractable. It is not a question of distance, of course, and I know of seaside cottages in New Zealand which are every bit as well-connected as houses in Islington. But go much nearer, to the home counties, and you will find rural areas where the connections are simply not adequate for the living of a properly connected life. Last year that would just have been an inconvenience, like the smell of silage or poor access, something which you would not have taken too seriously. But not now. Those who live in houses which do not have good connections will find themselves unable to participate in the new e-society.
That cannot be good thing, either for them or for the economy as a whole. How should it be dealt with? Like postal deliveries and rural buses, connectivity has to be something which everyone has a right to enjoy. That means that where it is not economical to provide it, the government needs to step in as a provider of last resort.
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto contained the words: “We want to roll out gigabit broadband across the country by 2025, with £5 billion in funding already promised, and provide greater mobile coverage across the country.” The revolution which is happening makes that the most important pledge of all of them. It is key to economic recovery. It is key to making sure that citizens can access the goods and services they need. It is the way forward.
According to the commentators, the covid virus will leave us with one of the most severe economic depression since the 30s. The conventional response to that is to up the expenditure on public works. There will be plenty of applicants for funds: museums, art galleries, flood defences, new transport systems and most of them have very valid claims. But for my money the best use for that expenditure is to accelerate work on perfecting the broadband network and bring that date forward from 2025 to an earlier year.
