New Digital Divide

When the development of Cable Television really started to kick in across the UK, there was some debate about how the huge infrastructure works required to carry the service into millions of homes would be rolled out.

Various vested interest groups emerged. These included the contractors winning work to dig the trenches in which to bury the cables; the carriers whose investment allowed these networks to be created and the TV companies who needed to be sure their signals were reaching as many people as possible.

It soon became obvious that specific segments of this huge new potential market were being identified, and the work gangs laying the cables were moving into some unlikely areas of our communities ensuring they had access to cable service before others.

Now the networks, in Merseyside at least, are pretty well universal in their accessibility and thousands of subscribers are on board.

But nothing stands still in the fast moving world of digital technology, and hot on the heels of this huge infrastructure programme came broadband, and now the option to view TV services via broadband connections and services like BTVision.

Digital technology touches all our lives – in business, at work, at home and in schools.

And the concerns expressed by many about the digital divide still exist. City centre Liverpool, in common with the UK’s other major cities, may have powerful broadband and fibre optic connectivity allowing business to prosper.

But venture less than a few miles in pretty well any direction from, say, the Pier Head, and you are soon into some of the most challenged communities to be found anywhere in England.

Interestingly, many of these areas found themselves near the top of the list when Cable TV landed. I’d hazard a guess that they found themselves there because the socio-economic profile of such communities matched the aspirations of the cable providers and their broadcast partners.

Fast forward a decade or so. Are these same communities able to access broadband as easily? And how easy is it for people in these communities to access the Internet at home, thus accessing a whole range of new opportunities spanning work, training, education etc?

Figures released this week by the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) show that Broadband users in 30 of the world's most developed countries are getting greatly differing speeds and prices.
That in itself suggests the digital divide is opening up on another flank.

Surely more worrying though is any suggestion that communities which could really benefit most from fast, reliable access to the Internet are still on the wrong side of the digital divide – even if they can watch more TV channels than ever.