A "one speed", networked nation

There’s been too much talk of broadband speeds, committed information rates, coverage percentages, regulatory frameworks, etc. from Government. The White Paper from Dr Tim Williams, Connecting Communities, is a refreshing change. And well timed.

As Huawei Public Affairs Manager, Mark Champion, said, “This groundbreaking report by Dr Williams presents compelling evidence on the social and economic impact of broadband across many facets of our lives, particularly in building and regenerating communities. Our hope is that Connecting Communities inspires debate in New Zealand around ideas for promoting greater social cohesion, delivering public services, as well as promoting democratic engagement and nation building.”

Funny how that sounds like Government-speak, i.e. visionary and leadership. Bit ironical as we’re mostly hearing vendor-speak from Government (though to be fair, ICT Minister Steven Joyce’s address at last week’s Telco Day hinted of changing focus at last).

Read the White Paper or listen to Dr Williams’ interview on Radio NZ.

Anyway, Dr Williams is an independent consultant engaged by Huawei to look at the impact of broadband on communities in Britain. He has done further work to assess the implications of his findings for Australia and, now, New Zealand.

He’s a non-techie, a former advisor to the UK Government. As a regeneration specialist he brings a refreshingly different perspective, one that is firmly grounded in communities and outcomes rather than technologies and infrastructure.

His White Paper talks about

“...enthusiasm – a commodity often lost in sometimes over-heated and over-politicised debates on costs, technologies or project management of broadband roll-out – about the transformational possibilities for people and communities, governments and economies, of this moment... so that something which has been dismissed as an expensive way to download videos is seen as I think it should be: an imperative step in a major process of economic and public services reform, community and consumer empowerment, regional and rural revitalisation and societal change. “

In essence, this is what Dr Williams calls a networked nation. The focus is not the network or ultra fast broadband or vendor-speak, rather “As trenches are dug and cables connected, sights and ambitions must be raised, above building the network to building the networked society.”

Happily, Dr Williams is government-savvy and speaks their language well, “The benefits can also be valued in outcomes as well as outputs; lives saved and enriched, health and other services improved, children educated, social inclusion increased, communities strengthened and made more self-reliant, emissions reduced and distances – geographical and social – reduced. This is the social return on public investment. In the UK there has been consensus about this return, and enthusiasm to realise the benefits of even faster broadband.”

He lays out two key UK agendas with relevance for New Zealand:

1. Digital inclusion

2. Improving public service outcomes and the relationship between citizens and governments

The White Paper highlights the importance to New Zealand of faster, more resilient broadband from the experiences with rural society in the UK where repopulation is taking place partly because of access to next generation broadband. Coupled with the spatial aspects of digital inclusion (rural areas), this lays the foundation for a “one speed” New Zealand.

Clearly, like us, Dr Williams is no fan of the “up to 5 Mbps” rural broadband programme. 50-100 Mbps is needed across the country. There is no reason why we can’t add our own inspiring stories of rural regeneration to those of Cornwall and Cumbria

He’s got a long list of 26 recommendations. Many of these are must-dos to get to a networked nation. Some are reasonably straightforward while others will challenge us. Yet these are the types of things we need to be doing if we are to lift up our sights from the network to a networked nation.

Key takeaways

1. Done right, there is a positive business case for providing rural areas with ultra fast broadband.

2. Our goal should be a networked nation, not a nation with good broadband infrastructure.

3. It is not for central government to do it alone but the challenge is to forge a true multi-stakeholder partnership. We all have a role to play. Collaboration is the key.

4. Yet the role of central government is critical. Vision and leadership, being the catalyst, is vital.

5. The public services need to reconfigure themselves, again. The challenge for them is to develop a vision of the future of public services in a ubiquitous broadband world and find ways of working together, both vertically and horizontally.

6. We’ve got to focus on making local cross-stakeholder initiatives work involving central government, local government, communities, businesses, user groups, and broadband suppliers.

7. While waiting for ultra fast broadband in rural areas, the focus is on maximising “spill over” of fibre in these areas from priority users (schools and hospitals) to the wider community and public services.

Also, while we’re at it, more government-speak than vendor-speak would be nice.