Broadband internet

After years of dawdling, in 2004 Britain finally caught up with the digital revolution, as one “tipping point” after another triggered progress. In the opinion of David Currie, chairman of Ofcom, the dynamic communications regulator, the “real volcanic eruption” is about to be unleashed. Faster, better, smaller and cheaper are the watchwords for what attracts us to the latest technologies, he told the Royal Television Society. One significant milestone was passed this year when the internet service provider PlusNet offered a fast broadband connection more cheaply than many dial-up packages, leaving surfers no excuse for living in the slow lane.

Ofcom claims that 15% of UK homes now have broadband, with 200,000 newcomers signing up each month — more than are subscribing to Freeview, the BBC-partnered digital television service. Today’s children will grow up telling stories of snail-like dial-up connections, paid for by the minute, along with all those oh-so-20th-century shaggy-dog tales of steam trains and fax machines.

The digital tsunami has arrived, bringing with it new crazes such as this year’s hot broadband trend: downloading. The broadband market has had an infuriatingly prolonged birth, but over the next five years, BT plans to spend up to £3 billion annually — more than the entire television licence fee — creating a high-speed national network that promises dazzling new services, from lightning-fast internet access to on-demand video.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this simply means speedier e-mail. As data rates have risen to levels unimaginable when Doors was launched five years ago, the net itself has changed, along with perceptions of what it can do for us. Headlines heralded the dawn of on-demand, interactive television, and optimists believe we’ll all be pulling down programmes over phone lines as easily as we download music files. The trigger was the gun Ofcom held to BT’s head last summer, forcing the company to slash its prices for access to the local telephone exchange — “local loop unbundling”, in the jargon. HomeChoice was immediately able to provide television on demand over phone lines at realistic tariffs.

The implications of a flood of unstoppable data go beyond all-you-can-eat television. Slowly, we have entered the age of the networked home, where a variety of techno toys and entertainment systems, not only computers, talk to each other over the net and can be accessed remotely by anyone with the right password.

This is also the year that changed the way we communicate. Research from BT suggests that 7 out of 10 adolescents in broadband households see the net as their primary way of talking to each other. Two-thirds of the “always-on generation” favour instant messaging over yesterday’s medium, texting, which Tony Blair belatedly adopted last month to get down with the kids.

A critical mass was reached in 2004. A business that lacks a website is one that many people fail to take seriously. Being without an e-mail address is, increasingly, like being without a phone number — just as using a phone to make voice calls is giving way to various kinds of handy computers. The digital tidal wave took too long to build up, but prepare to be drenched in 2005... in data, hype and, when it works, a huge amount of fun. DH

INTERNET-FOR-ALL AWARD

Marc Meyohas

Hopping online on the hoof is as vital today as phoning. Unfortunately, the nascent 3G mobile networks offer only patchy coverage, while wireless internet (WiFi) access is substantially hype. One man, however, is shaking Britain up. “We believe in broadband for everyone, everywhere,” says Marc Meyohas, the managing director of Cityspace, which has been quietly convincing councils to install scores of iPlus street kiosks, where the public can access websites, send e-mails and check local information free of charge. Crucially, most of the kiosks also emit a WiFi signal, so that anyone within a couple of hundred yards can whip out a laptop or PDA and enjoy blazingly fast broadband. The largest WiFi “hot zone” covers central Bristol, bringing free broadband to more than 100 bars, cafes and restaurants. Good work. AP

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