Broadband: You Couldn’t Give It Away.

The Government is very keen for us to all get online. In particular they think that children without internet access are at a major disadvantage compared to their connected friends. Gordon Brown (still PM at the time of press ) pledged to spend £300m to help poor families get online. He plans to offer vouchers that will be redeemable against computers and monthly ISP costs. The idea behind this is that web access is a vital part of learning. It has been suggested that children from homes with broadband achieve on average higher exam results. I would argue that this probably isn’t direct cause and effect. A broadband connection may just be a sign of a more privileged background. Still it must be a disadvantage to learn without access to all the information that is found online.

Huge amounts of money are also being invested in the mobile broadband infrastructure leading to an increase in coverage and speed that may result in traditional broadband (via a phone line) becoming an outdated idea. There is much debate about where this money should be coming from with the ISPs looking like they are going to have to cash up. The government wants all geographic areas of the country covered as well as all sections of society but doesn’t feel that they should have to pay when mobile broadband providers can expect huge profits.

A new study has found that almost half of those without a broadband connection wouldn’t even use one if it was given to them for free.

43% of adults who currently do not have internet access would remain disconnected even if they were given a free PC and broadband connection.

Perhaps this means that we have almost reached the point where everyone who wants a broadband connection has one. There are people who are quite happy to be offline and have no intention to get connected. I would expect this to be a generational thing seeing as how children these days grow up with web access in the home. It probably wouldn’t even occur to this generation to not be online. Those in our grandparents generation have to make a conscious decision to either ignore the internet or become a silver surfer.

61% of those who said that they had no intention of going online had never used a computer. These must be the kind of people left searching for the ‘any’ key when the dialogue box on screen says ‘press any key to continue’ bless ‘em.

“Broadband is becoming increasingly important to people’s ability to participate in the economy and society. The report shows that some creativity will be required if we wish to capture the imaginations of those who have yet to engage with the benefits the internet may bring,”

Ofcom’s Peter Phillips.

Interestingly 73% of those asked said that they considered broadband to be an essential utility such as water or electricity. This just shows how much of an essential part of (most of) our lives it has become. This is incredible when you consider that it wasn’t even known about by the general population before the 1990s. It’s only going to become more integrated in our lives in the future, to the point where there will be no ‘offline’ – everything will be connected all of the time. The next generation may be amazed when they realise that our grandparents never even touched a computer…

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