Can accurate digital comparisons ever be made?
11th September 2009
Everyone is different, DNA and fingerprints is the scientific evidence of this, emotions and reactions is hormonal proof. Nature versus nurture adds to the debate, is someone born a certain way or does where they live and how they are raised the real reason for their actions?
Digital Britain logo
Comparisons are difficult to make in any area of life, whether it be people, communities and in this case, countries. BIS and DCMS released the Digital Britain Full Report on 16th June 2009, now the Digital Britain forum enables the central government team responsible for delivering the report to challenge press stories, and peers queries about the details of the report and the way it will be implemented. A particularly interesting post appeared on Tuesday this week……
South Korea, and one of its cities Seoul, has been ‘leading’ the broadband ’race’ for many years now – the speed that is available for citizens and businesses in the country is immense, whether they are over or underground. As the Digital Britain Forum post describes from Francesco Ciao’s report in September 2008, ”some people bewail the fact that the UK was not keeping up with South Korea’s broadband deployment” but then the point is made that I think is extremely significant “(but) it usually overlooks its (South Korea’s) far more densely populated cities and high-rise accommodation, and its entirely different government/industry structure”.
I don’t think it is the Government dodging the need for more secure broadband speeds across the UK, or the real problem of “not spots” that are found mostly in rural areas, but are reported in some urban areas too. But Ciao makes an extremely valid point that can sometimes be forgotten. Every city and country is different, especially infrastructure, political control and population size.
The league tables that have been released by the Fibre to the Home Council Europe, detail the following nations are appearing in the Top 10 (the percentage relates to the amount of citizens that have fibre broadband direct to their home):
1. Sweden – 10.9%
2. Norway – 10.2%
3. Slovenia – 8.9%
4. Andorra – 6.6%
5. Denmark – 5.7%
6. Iceland – 5.6%
7. Lithuania – 3.3%
8. The Netherlands – 2.5%
9. Slovakia – 2.5%
10. Finland – 2.4%
Again, I do not believe the Government is trying to take anything away from these countries. Scandanavia is known to be ahead of the UK when it comes to next generation access. But it is important to put the tables into context. The Digital Britain Forum explains “Andorra has 6.6% of its population connected to fibre (approx 3,000 homes)”, that isn’t a massive amount but still enables Andorra to reach 4th in the European fibre league tables.
It is obviously unfortunate that the UK does not appear in the top 10, and is actually ‘behind’ a number of eastern European countries. But if the table was ranked in relation to population size, so the amount of fibre connections was in context with how many people lived in that country – the results might be quite different.
The Digital Britain report has been accused of being unambitious, but the Implementation Plan that has been released details how the report is going to be delivered and by whom. This appeared in under 8 weeks of the full report being published which does show the Government’s commitment to the white paper.
As with any Government policy, only time will tell. But I think Digital Britain, and the UK’s progress on next generation access should be viewed in its own right. The UK is not like any other country, like its European and international neighbours, and sometimes too much emphasis is put on comparing broadband speeds and/or internet connections rather than congratulating a country’s unique digital progress.
