The Auricle

by Derek Morrison, 30 January 2009 (updated 14 February 2009

The UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport published the Digital Britain – Interim report yesterday (29 January 2009). It’s notable that the “white heat of technology” ethos still reigns supreme in this report, e.g.

• By 2012 £1 in every £5 of all new commerce in this country will be online.
• … we must ensure that our wired and wireless communications and broadcasting networks can meet the demands of a modern knowledge-based economy … industrial activism from government will be critical to ensuring that the UK gets the most out of the digital economy.
• …. as the global recession bites, it is essential to nurture those parts of the economy that can generate growth potential and jobs.
• The necessary education, skills and media literacy programmes to allow everyone in society to benefit from the digital revolution will be a central part of the Digital Britain work and key to our success.
• … the possibility of a new organisation of the scale and reach needed for the multi-media, multi-platform digital world, able to work alongside the BBC but with a distinct role.
• …. digital technology also offers the prospect of more effective delivery of wider public services in terms of quality of service, connectivity and reach for the individual – as users of online services today, from NHS Direct to the DVLA’s Car Tax Renewal Service, can attest.

The report highlights 5 Objectives (abridged)

1. Upgrading and modernising UK digital networks
2. Dynamic investment climate for UK digital content, applications and services
3. UK content for UK users (Hmm! … will this translate into yet more regionalisation of access?)
4. Universal availability and digital literacy (the interim report introduces the concept of Digital Universal Service Commitment – that’s great until you then read “include options up to 2Mb/s” – that “up to” is a constraint term as current users of UK broadband services will know only to well, i.e. currently 8Mb/s usually equals 2-3Mb/s in reality as the available speed decreases with increasing distance from their local telephone exchange
5. Widespread online delivery of public services and business interface with Government

But oh! the inpenetrable jargon! For example, in referring to the pricing model for digital spectrum to be used for more wireless broadband (3G) that will be released by the switch from analogue services we have:

As part of the structured trading framework existing time-limited licences could be made indefinite and subject instead to AIP beyond the end of the current term. If this were achieved the Government would look to ensure that the AIP then set reflected the spectrum’s full economic value and hence would capture over time the return equivalent to the proceeds that would have been realised in the market from an auction for a licence of the same period…

Here’s hoping that the above translates into something sensible and that the UK government does not try to replenish its fast depleting recessionary coffers by repeating the mistake of its earlier auction of the 3G spectrum. The result last time around may have put GBP 22.5 billion in the Treasury account but, as the five mobile phone operators who had purchased the licenses tried to recoup their investment, it initiated vastly unrealistic and inaccessible prices for 3G services. The result? A major inhibition of mass take-up and the supression of truly innovative services that people could afford. So this time around they should practically give the spectrum away with the caveat being that the “purchasers” help develop a sustainable infrastructure for rolling out high capacity broadband and accessible services for a mass market rather than a relatively privileged few. A robust case for just such a move is argued in the NESTA policy briefing Getting up to speed: making super-fast broadband a reality (James Meadway and Juan Mateos-Garcia, NESTA, 19 January 2009). But will the Government listen? They have already commissioned Morgan Stanley to stimulate interest for a potential GBP 5 billion sale in 2010 of the UHF spectrum that will be released by the UK’s switchover from analogue to digital television.

Update – See Ofcom ultimatum over broadband access on mobile phones (Times, 14 February 2009)

On the switch to digital radio the interim reports states:

We are making a clear statement of Government and policy commitment to enabling DAB to be a primary distribution network for radio …

But whilst addressing coverage of digital radio in the UK nothing is said about migrating to a more modern digital technology than the DAB standard currently used in the UK, which some would argue is now rather dated in comparison to alternatives. To reduce the cost and increase the uptake of digital radio requires a global technical standard like FM not a regional solution like DAB.

As I’ve indicated in several previous Auricle articles the digital revolution may offer new convenient services like the BBC iPlayer on the one hand but can also offers new solutions to restrict behaviours on the other. On the question if IPR the interim report states:

By the time the final Digital Britain Report is published the Government will have explored with interested parties the potential for a Rights Agency to bring industry together to agree how to provide incentives for legal use of copyright material; work together to prevent unlawful use by consumers which infringes civil copyright law; and enable technical copyright-support solutions that work for both consumers and content creators … Our response to the consultation on peer-to-peer file sharing sets out our intention to legislate, requiring ISPs to notify alleged infringers of rights (subject to reasonable levels of proof from rights-holders) that their conduct is unlawful. We also intend to require ISPs to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities), to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order.

And as regards media literacy? Who gets to lead? Educational institutions? No, let’s remember this is a DCMS report that is focusing on culture theoretically encapsulated in content, how to deliver said content, how to control said content’s flow, and how, ideally, to make the country healthy and wealthy in the process. So finally in this whistle-stop tour of the interim report find:

… working with the BBC and others, to recommend a new definition and ambition for a National Media Literacy Plan

So if you want to influence the National Media Literacy Plan you had better make efforts to become one of the “others”.

I’ll revisit Digital Britain again but it does kind of worry me that this is a DCMS report at a time when we all need joined up inter-departmental thinking that goes beyond the production and processing of content and its perceived value. But that’s perhaps too much to hope for.