No divide and conquer

Changing the digital paradigm is in our hands

DURING the 2005 general election (or “ancient history” as it is now known), Wales had the best and the worst broadband connected constituencies of anywhere in the United Kingdom. The sheer numbers of broadband users in Wales has skyrocketed over the past five years, but a digital divide resolutely remains entrenched.

To date, the debate in Wales has understandably focused on the economic questions that surround the digital divide. Many Welsh families, already poor or socially disadvantaged in some other way, cannot or do not have access to the new technologies and the opportunities they bring. New forms of business and enterprise, new types of skills, new sources of wealth and new forms of social interaction – all of these are possible but we still haven’t made the leap forward to embrace all the benefits. We are, sadly, continuing to have a 20th Century debate about a 21st Century problem.

There are a number of reasons for the lack of progress. Access remains a significant issue for many Welsh communities. This is often characterised as a rural versus urban debate, but is as much to do with the sheer cost of digging up roads and financing the investment as it is with how far you live from a telephone exchange. More pertinent is the simple lack of money and general affordability of being online for many Welsh families. Although this is changing as broadband becomes increasingly commoditised, many still regard being online as a luxury item in their household budgeting.

One further issue rarely given serious consideration is that of skills and training. The fear of technology can become entrenched, leading to avoidance and, in some ways, outright hostility. I remember spending most of the 1980s trying to explain to my father how to programme the video recorder. My mum and dad haven’t gone online because of a genuine- if misplaced- view that they might break the internet. They are not untypical.

There are clear economic benefits for Wales truly becoming a broadband nation. At an individual level, being online can save the average Welsh family around £560 a year. Families who fall into the poorest economic categories save around £270. As part of her work for the UK government as the digital inclusion “Tsar”, Martha Lane Fox- she of lastminute.com fame- has worked out that, at a time of impending cuts, digital inclusion could make a significant impact. For example, shifting the nature of citizens’ engagement with the state from either face to face, or a brochure, to online could save around £900m a year. An average citizen has around 13 interactions with the state in an average year. As our American cousins are fond of saying, do the math. There is a very real opportunity for the Welsh Assembly Government to take a massive step forward and move certain services online. In much the same way that we have seen a forced digital switchover for television, done in a staged, pragmatic and sensible way, so we could start to see the delivery of some public services through the online route. This will not be universally popular but with a public sector deficit of £163bn, we have to start to think more strategically and more creatively.

This isn’t all about economics. Being online can help develop an individual’s confidence and self esteem. This can play a key role in reinforcing family and community cohesion. It can empower individuals and groups to campaign and be involved in the democratic process.

There are, however, some reasons to be hopeful. On May 13, BT (one of Wales’s so-called “anchor companies”) announced its annual results to the city. They were a pretty solid set of numbers and demonstrated some considerable progress for the telecommunications giant. In among the debates on balance sheets and pension deficits, one piece of investment went largely unreported. BT’s announcement of another £1.6bn of investment in fibre optic broadband, is a huge step forward. Some of this investment will be Wales bound which is great news for Welsh businesses and communities. It complements the investment made by the likes of Sky and Virgin Media and makes the prospect of a broadband nation tantalisingly within sight.

At a time when everyone is predicting an era of austerity and cutbacks, there is, perhaps perversely, an opportunity to create a big social shift in this country and to enable all of the people who do not have access to technology, who have maybe not thought it was for them, or thought it wasn’t important that it was in their lives to use technology. It’s time for the Welsh Government to embrace this. Using digital technology to overcome social exclusion is not, in and of itself, the answer. However, it can provide some routes in to opportunities – for both personal and community development. We might be a small country but we should think big.