The Whole Truth

A new study by UK Consumers has shown that most people believe broadband is as essential as electricity or water (BBC). Some 73% of those questioned described a high-speed connection as important. The Communications Consumer Panel’s research involved 16 focus groups and a face-to-face survey with 2,000 people across the UK. Its findings will be submitted to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain review, due to be published on 16 June. The chair of the Communications Consumer Panel Anna Bradley said:

The key message is that people think broadband is at a tipping point. It’s fantastically useful for everyone, essential for some now, but will be essential for everyone in the near future. It is being compared by consumers to gas and electricity – things which they think we all ought to have access to, almost as a right.

Whether checking whats going on in the gossip sections of various online newspaper incarnations is essential remains in my mind a mystery!

According to the survey it suggests the people who did not have a broadband connection would be at a disadvantage compared to those who had easy access to shopping, banking and public service sites. Which in my opinion is true, but this way of thinking can only lead to ill thinking. Of course access is useful. A friend summed it up with these couple of paragraphs…

Okay- there is a simple answer to this question: the pros far outweigh the cons. The answer is a very easy one for people of a certain age my age. The late twenties/ early thirties bracket. The reason is simple we are young enough to be able to adapt to the technological changes which have taken place in the last ten years and yet also old enough to recall life without the internet and mobile phones- therefore arguably the only sub generation to be able to assess life with and without these things with great clarity. It strikes me that when answering the question of broadband, you need simply answer the two separate questions: has the proliferation of mobile phones made life better and has spread of the internet made life better. The answer in both cases is a clear yes. The internet has made information more readily available and made tasks, which were epitomized by the adjectives such as: tedious, laborious, boring, etc quite removed from this. Indeed such ‘tasks’ are really not even that any more. Finding out what is going on on a Friday night in any nearby City can be sought out in seconds, for example.

What happened to a live before these technical advancements? We all pitched together and helped those who need help. Unfortunately the Internet culture takes no prisoners, and those such as my parents will always be confused my phrases such as HTTP, URL, E-Mail, Online Savings etc this is not something that they are even bothered about, the only way they will start being interested in the potential benefits of say a mobile broadband system will be when they have no other option but to use it; until then they wont care, believe me! read more »

In the current climate there has been a lot of speculation as to how effective the governments few month old scrappage scheme has been. Has it been as effective as it could have been? Has the money offered for used vans been effective?

I decided to contact my local van dealership located on an industrial estate. A brief transcrift below.

Me: Hello, How successful in your terms have the recent introduction of the scrappage scheme been?

Dealer: Not Very, We have had interest, but it has not correlated into sales, we have had exactly 1 sale in the time since the introduction.

Of course the demographic I have used has been my local area.

It is interesting to see that infact for the area around me it seems to have been fairly unsuccessful.

Scrappage Scheme