Category: Internet

ICT infrastructure requires another investment push

Jo

Next generation access refers to the higher speeds at which we can connect to the internet, and researchers have revealed that 8% of UK households now benefit from a super high speed of connection. But, while this super high speed news may sound brilliantly progressive, we really should be aiming to spread this rate of access beyond just a twelfth of properties. Because if we compare the rate of connection at the highest rate – 30Mbps or higher – with the UK average of 9Mbps, it is easy to see that the improvements in connectivity are far from inclusive. Indeed, it is especially important in a climate of economic recovery that a reliable and fast connection to the internet does not become the preserve of the wealthy: news articles reporting on the higher speeds being accessed in the UK have also taken time to note that ‘In the current economic climate, spending an extra £10 a month to get faster broadband is simply not a priority for most households’. And this is certainly true in regions where ICT infrastructure leaves much to be desired. Now is really the time then to look properly into the problem of how Britain can avoid creating a new category of social inequality based on technical computer skills and access to information. Investment in community broadband is happening too reluctantly.

Philosophers and theorists have been talking recently about how our economy is shifting from an economy of production and consumption to an economy of contribution. Put simply, this means that the future might see fewer global corporations responsible for the goods the rest of us rely upon and a greater number of the general population might also be producers and consumers of a wider range of specialised services and goods. Obviously, things might not work out this way but, if we can look forward to greater independence and the crumbling of a rigid top-down economic model, we can be sure that the internet will have a big role to play.

Internet users with next generation access are in a really advantageous position at the moment: there is so much open source software available in locations where ICT infrastructure is established that we can use to educate ourselves, produce artwork, write music, and even develop our own products. However, we must not get too inspired about all of this, at the risk of forgetting about the under-developed countries and even the poorly connected areas of wealthy nations who have an unreliable or non-existent level of internet access. Improving community broadband is an urgent issue.

Please visit http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/

5041d1234aad3

ICT infrastructure upgrades for higher quality access to broadband

Jo

The internet has long been hailed as an inclusive and democratising resource proffering a staggering supply of information and useful services. However, many people still feel left out of the so-called age of information by the singular fact of living in a community where high-speed web connections are harder to obtain. Good news is on the way, however, as certain companies are getting behind ICT infrastructure developments that aim to bring an end to these unjust circumstances. Investments are being made, for example, in creative upgrades and corporate outsourcing drives that will help rural estates integrate into the online world through next generation access and community broadband set-ups.

We often hear the term ‘online community’ these days in reference to social networks created between friends, acquaintances and fellow professionals in the virtual realm. Evidently these networks can serve us well, particularly when they make organizing events and meetings or sharing documents or articles easier. For some time, rural inhabitants have experienced difficulties in reaping the benefits of such web-based communities, though they may have counterbalanced their technological lack by strengthening connections and communications in the physical realm. More and more, however, rural estates are having it both ways thanks to the success of community broadband: they are finding themselves in a position enabling them to maintain the strong contacts they have cultivated locally through slower means, as well as gaining in the online stakes. It really is a win-win situation.

Community broadband projects thus have a social as well as a professional function. Moreover, next generation access works to answer the requirements of both households, who may want to save time and resources by carrying out everyday tasks such as shopping and paying bills online, and businesses whose expansion and success has become unavoidably dependent on taking advantage of their presence on the internet. That is why ICT infrastructure upgrades represent such a serious and significant undertaking. Indeed, a great number of local councils are showing their support for the companies investing in improvements to internet access. In the north of the UK, in areas such as the South Yorkshire towns and cities of Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster in particular, many business centres and science parks actually count on the technological innovations making broadband better: their very survival depends on the advantages that are sometimes only accessible online.

Please visit http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/

4e89dad22d633