Sunderland is the 26th largest city in England and, with great respect to the place, is not renowned as a technological or cultural pioneer. Indeed now, many years after its industrial heyday, government metrics have it as a site of some of the most serious deprivation in the UK with high levels of both poverty and unemployment. The cities motto is ‘Never Despair, Trust In God' which neatly captures a sense of both fatalism and decline.
However results from a recent survey conducted by the UK's communications regulator Ofcom describe Sunderland as the UK's most connected city, with 66% of households having a broadband connection against a national average of 58% and with 96% of the population using digital television. These figures are worth some scrutiny as the received wisdom regarding communication infrastructure and uptake is that the core will fare better than the periphery and the rich better than the poor. This narrative is supported by the evidence from the same report that Glasgow has the lowest take-up of broadband in the UK at 32%, a fact attributed by Ofcom to the low levels of household income and computer ownership in the city. Sunderland though, contradicts this received wisdom being both well outside the capital and a site of serious poverty, and yet still tops the pile for connectivity in the UK.
These figures provoke a number of questions. Firstly why is Sunderland (and in this it is representative of rural areas in general) outperforming in this unexpected fashion? Ofcom suggests that much of the demand for broadband access in rural areas is driven by the need for online shopping, banking and communication which supports the idea of technology as a transformative influence on the way people lead their lives. Secondly what is the importance of all this and why the interest in these rather obscure figures? As the uptake of digital technologies has continued throughout the UK over the last 10 years government and industry have become increasingly concerned by what it has named ‘the digital divide', the term commonly used to refer to the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology, and those without. Here a core/periphery divide, based around geography, is only one of a number of potential splits. There is also the potential for divisions based on different social fault lines: between the young and old, rich and poor, and the tech savvy and the tech illiterate. What this survey seems to demonstrate is that amongst these problems, the questions of a geographical divide has largely been addressed and that those outside of the South East still have the opportunity to participate and exploit the benefits of digital convergence, be them in the shape of information, communication or entertainment. Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom commenting on the issue said: "Our report highlights a closing of the geographical digital divide in the UK. Rural households are today as well connected to broadband as their urban neighbours."
This is enormously good news for the government, the regulator and the public sector broadcasters. For government this report is welcome primarily as
it helps defend them from accusations of being London-centric. If the nations or regions were seen to be significantly behind the South East in broadband access then the issue would have had serious political implications and provoke much hand wringing around the creation of a ‘second class' digital citizen. Such a debate would also have been particularly painful for the Public Service Broadcasters, and specifically the BBC who are experimenting with a mixed economy of distribution platforms. This month the Beeb announced that it had received the 71st million request for a show on its iplayer service, less than five months after its launch. If those in the nations and regions were being deprived of access to content because of a lack of broadband provision the political fallout would have been doubly tricky. Finally the regulator will also be pleased with these numbers because, for the time being, it removes the case or need for intervention into the market to try and resolve a geographical ‘digital divide'.
However the good news doesn't just stop there: the survey also bodes well for British industry as a whole and in particular SME's based outside of London or the South East. Whilst most large companies will have their own broadband communication packages that guarantee a certain speed and reliability of service provision, smaller companies and those on the edge of the network rely on standard consumer packages offered by the Internet Service Providers. The fact that companies have access to broadband connection is vital to them in terms of cost savings, efficiency and business opportunities.
But before we all pat ourselves on the back and think the job is done there is one hugely pertinent issue that is not properly addressed by the report: speed. Access has not been a problem for some time in first generation broadband, the last time Ofcom reported on the matter 97% of the population was already covered and whilst this uptake of services is impressive, not least in Sunderland, it doesn't answer the question as to what next. As the growth curve of the internet continues on its steady incline the network is coming under increasing pressure and services are stalling. Like in any traffic jam, speeds are suffering and consumers are complaining. Whilst the geographical digital divide has been ameliorated in terms of access, country dwellers are still second class citizens in terms of speed, and this is likely to become an increasingly contentious issue for consumers and SME's as time goes on and the network slows down.
Sunderland then, as an early adopter, is well poised to exploit the potential benefits of broadband access, and the way that it transforms the exchange and production of information, communication and entertainment: however the real benefit will be when broadband speeds increase significantly. Until then any talk of solving the digital divide question is miss-placed.
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