Resist the recessionary calls to cut spending – it’s time to invest in a digital future

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By James AllenDigi

The Government’s ambitious plans for the UK’s digital future obviously matter to a trade union representing members across the telecoms and ICT sectors, with the promise of much needed extra jobs and investment in the industry. However, the Digital Britain programme, being led by Lord Stephen Carter at BERR promises to deliver radical change for the UK economy and for society through rolling out next generation access (NGA) broadband services across the UK.

The internet has revolutionised the way we do business, the way we communicate and interact and the way that we organise our lives. There is no reason why the next decades shouldn’t be equally transformative, but having a communications infrastructure fit for the twenty first century will be a pre-requisite to that progress.

Rolling out NGA across the UK will be essential to stimulate the economy (including the telecoms sector, which has been hit hard by the downturn) in the short to medium term and, crucially, to make the UK more competitive in the long term through exploiting and developing our underlying strengths in the high skilled, knowledge based economy. The UK’s content and creative industries are a success story, and these along with a whole host of other businesses are increasingly demanding faster and more reliable broadband services.

But why is what some see as just a technical upgrade to the broadband network an issue for Labour?

First, digital inclusion and social exclusion are closely linked. Take-up of broadband services is lowest amongst the poorest, most excluded and most vulnerable people in our society. Lacking access to digital services, whether this is driven by a lack of connection (as in many rural areas), by economics (through the inability to afford a PC or internet connection) or by a lack of confidence or awareness of the importance of getting online, automatically disenfranchises many from commercial and public services and increasingly from connectedness with wider society.

Young people who grow up in homes with internet access are more likely to achieve educational success and the importance of digital services in breaking down or in reinforcing social inequalities is beginning to gain recognition. Employers are increasingly advertising jobs largely, or exclusively, online and the economic downturn has made the need to get fair access to employment opportunities more acute than ever.

The recently published Digital Britain Interim Report has already outlined proposals for a new universal service obligation in broadband. This is promising, and we would urge government to make its ambition of a decent, 2mb/s broadband connection for all a reality. Digital inclusion matters and government has, to its credit, made a good start through its Digital Inclusion Action Plan toward recognising the social importance of modern communication services.

For consumers, broadband services are increasingly being seen as a vital service and not as a discretionary ‘added extra’. Interestingly, there is little evidence so far that as consumers cut their budgets in response to the economic slowdown that they are cutting their broadband lines. There is a key consumer angle in debates around the digital future, not least as the best deals are often secured online. Those on the tightest budgets, and therefore who would benefit most from online discounts and incentives are often the ones least well placed to access those benefits.

The Government is putting more and more of its own services and information online. The possibilities for the future of online public service delivery are exciting – promising interactive services, close to the user that are ‘always on’ whilst offering considerable savings for government and freeing up much needed money to be spent elsewhere. Government needs to go even further – not just in acting as an exemplar and in demonstrating the benefits of online delivery, but also in making sure that its own content is fully accessible – both to diverse, including inexperienced, internet users and in getting the right content to be accessible through varied, including mobile technologies.

The UK’s digital future is an exciting one and the Labour Government has already gone a long way toward getting the right policy and regulatory framework in place to allow investment to flow. The challenge now will be to keep up the pace, and to resist calls that a recession is the time to do nothing but cut costs.

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