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Home Ownership in the Connected Kingdom

I got up yesterday morning questioning why it was that BT will take at least another five and possibly ten years to upgrade my broadband from 2MB to 10 or perhaps even 40 (on their current unpublished, un-thought-about plans).  I run an information intensive business from home and I need faster broadband – now.  And I am not alone!  Why should I wait?  And I thought who owns this problem anyway?

It triggered a thought.  A Thursday Thought!

In the early days of Telecoms deregulation, BT was forced to move the ownership of the (plain-old-bog-standard-you-can-have-it-in-any-colour-so-long-as-it-is-black) Telephone to the person owning the number.  Standards were created and innovation thrived with new types of telephone being connected to the network – so long as they conformed to standards.

When Openreach was created,  management of the equipment on the end of the line was handed over to other so-called “Service Providers” and (a little known fact), BT was forced to auction-off the actually ownership of about 60% of their lines – which were predominantly won by the French company, Orange.  However, for those in the Final Third, this line ownership trick is irrelevant.  We are still at the beck-and-call of BT Openreach’s exchange upgrade programme.

A few weeks ago I had lunch with the Chief Engineer at BT Openreach (George Williamson).  I asked him how it was possible to unlock BT’s investment bottleneck and accelerate the rollout of broadband to the final third.  But he simply said the current plans for upgrading would take all of BT’s resources in the next three years and that the programme put BT’s implementation teams at maximum stretch.  So there is an implementation capacity problem here too.  Which is why more local infrastructure building (with or without BT) looks interesting.  There is a market for it, if only BT Openreach were prepared to publish their plans of where (and where not) they intend to go.

So I thought, what about me owning my own line – like in the days when I ownership of the telephone passed from BT to the private sector?  What if I could then do a deal with BT (or another service provider) to pay them double to upgrade the line (rather than pay Sky to watch football).  What if I paid them treble (and not buy a new car)?  What if I bought new shares in a community bond scheme which would partner with BT (or another builder) to accelerate the rollout?  What if (like in some parts of Europe) a mortgage company will extend a mortgage to include the cost of a Next Generation connection?  What if there were people in my community who would underwrite the scheme?  What if….

So I leave the question hanging – why shouldn’t I be able to by and own my own line?  I don’t want it owned by some service provider or some company that themselves are totally dependent on a part of BT Group that is not the slightest bit interested in my line – until about 2108 if I am lucky!

Time to re-think “home ownership” and what a connected home really means in the connected kingdom!

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Digital Scotland Rocks!

I was away in Edinburgh last week at the launch of the Digital Scotland report.  A fine piece of work which creates a new way of looking at Next Generation Access in the UK by suggesting that Scotland creates a Digtial Scotland Trust with a number of internet hubs which serve 2,000 people or about 800 households.

The report was refreshing – but what I found most interesting (and at the same time most frustrating) is that many of the ideas, issues and blockages on the deployment of Next Generation Access are not new.  The same ideas were being talked about back in 2002!  Yet this time around there are a whole new set of academics and enlightened individuals in the wider society beginning to take much more of an interest because Next Generation Broadband Access is at the heart of the UK’s competitive position in the world and we are seen to be slipping behind.

Professor Michael Fourman kicked-off his talk with the report commissioned by Google which came out that day called the Connected Kingdom – which says that the UK is Number 1 for e-commerce.

So the story gets confusing as those looking at this video will say “we are not slipping behind, we are number 1 for e-commerce – which is what really matters”.

The critical next step is to find a way to educate the politicians on the benefits of NGA and wider ICT to their (drastically reduced) public sector programmes and to see if we can bridge the investment gap of about £10-15 bn to accelerate rollout to the Final Third (both geographically disconnected and socially excluded). A trivial amount for a five year programme in an industry that is worth over £100bn to the UK economy each year. We need to move from a connected kingdom to a hyper-connected kingdom which includes everyone, not just the digitally advantaged.

Although BT has committed a substantial amount of new investment, it cannot crack the problem on its own.  In many ways, the real test for success will be how “open” the so-called OpenReach really is.

The additional investment is needed over-and-above the (approximately £5bn committed by BT,  Virgin Media and the government’s BDUK division with any match-funding from Europe).  It is needed to implement the difficult bits of the 20 year programme which we are half-way through.  And it needs to be invested alongside some new thinking on business models, shared assets, shared investment schemes and business rates rationalisation.

The difficult part of the implementation (of the final third) has started.  It is time for the more enlightened thinking from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (and the August report from the Scottish Reform Trust) as well as the Foundation for Science and Technology to bring new thinking and political momentum to this old problem.  With right political alignment and the realisation that the public sector cuts can only be achieved by investing in a Hyper-Connected Kingdom the required new money will flow in to fill the gap.

As some of you may know, Scotland is (geologically) part of Canada – and only joined Europe relatively recently (in earth time). Rod Mitchell, my namesake, pointed out to me that much of the thinking that went into the Welsh Assembly Government’s commissioning of the FibreSpeed network in North Wales came from Scotland.   I hope this time around that Scotland actually benefits from its own thinking – rather than exporting the ideas without getting the true benefits of implementing them at home!

Putting the UK back at the front with the “Best Broadband in Europe in this government” is totally possible.  It is a simple matter of some clear thinking, a few politicians who “get” it and a bit of rocket fuel under the BDUK and Ofcom to tweak some of the industry structures!

Watch this space!

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Powers of Ten

I have always been intrigued by numbers and dates – and on Sunday we passed the memorable date of 10/10/10 – which works which ever side of the Atlantic you live on!

Thank you, Sebastian, for reminding me of the clear, succinct and beautifully conveyed video “Powers of Ten” — the classic nine-minute film made for IBM by the legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames in 1977.

As intended with all Thursday Thoughts, this one really makes you think!

More on the story from IBM at: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/powers_of_ten/20101010/index.shtml

and at: http://powersof10.com/

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The Only Thing That Can Change the World

I continue to be very inspired by the RSA’s Animate series – with fantastic cartoons illustrating really complex ideas.

The clip below has been recently released, with Matthew Taylor’s ideas on 21st Century Enlightenment.

It ends with a great quote Margaret Mead (American cultural anthropologist, 1901-1978):

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

So now you know the only thing that can change the world!

Enjoy!

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The Power of Envisioning Your Ideal Outcome

I was reminded this week of a very useful technique that a friend taught me about five years ago.  She called it the “blueprint method”.  She used it with her partner many times – and it was extraordinarily successful for her.

At the time she taught us the method, my wife and I were looking to move house.  We knew roughly what we wanted.  My friend suggested that we both find a quiet moment and WRITE DOWN on a piece of paper our ideal home – giving it as much description as possible and describing it AS IF WE ALREADY LIVED IN IT AND OWNED IT.

We went home and did just that – and envisioned owning a cottage in the country in the price-range that we could afford (which was considerably less than the going market rate for a three bedroom cottage in our area). We pictured a garden front and back with a garage and beautiful views with a forest we could walk into.  At the time, we were living in a tiny rented cottage in the middle of a village with none of the above features.

Having written down our vision, I filed the paper away and we went on holiday.  During the holiday we discussed the cottage and tried to convince ourselves that our wish-list was possible.  Somehow the price we wanted to pay was far too little against market rates at the time.

Within a week from returning from holiday, the estate agent rang and showed us a cottage that FITTED OUR BLUEPRINT EXACTLY.  My wife and I walked through the door and knew it was where we wanted to live for the next few years.  And it was in our price-range.  We still live in that cottage now!

So this week, I tried the same exercise on a business problem I had.  I conducted the exercise on an IDEAL CLIENT and sure enough, someone fitting the description of my ideal client came right through the door the next day!

So, in summary, here is the MAGIC BLUEPRINT METHOD:

1)  Sit down with a piece of paper (ideally with anyone else who will benefit from the exercise) and WRITE DOWN exactly what you want.  Use pictures, photographs or drawings to bring the wish to life.  It is important to believe that you already OWN OR ARE LIVING YOUR DREAM. (The dream must be for the greater good of those involved, otherwise it is in the realm of black magic and I do not endorse any outcomes).

2)  File the piece of paper away, and each time the idea comes into your mind, simply BELIEVE YOUR WISH HAS ALREADY COME INTO YOUR LIFE

3)  When the time comes for “that for which you have wished for” to come into your life, SIMPLY RECEIVE IT WITH GRATIFICATION!

It might sound whacky and I am sure there are many internet sites making exaggerated claims about similar ideas.  However, many books have been written about this technique for many centuries – including “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and more recently “The Secret”.  If you envision something for a higher purpose, write it down and allow it to come into your life, then it works every time.  You just have to believe it for it to come true!  It is the stuff fairy stories are made of.

Interested in any folk who have similar stories or have tried it already.  Also to those of you who give it a go and get results.  Try it: it works.  But you have to believe in it!

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