The relationship between privacy issues and smart metering was always going to be fraught with concern. As such, I was interested to read this article which includes a summary of some of the key issues being faced in Canada and Netherlands. Firstly, to Canada, where law-enforcers have monitored energy usage as part of gathering evidence against suspected marijuana growers. Clever, eh? However, in court, the judge dismissed the ammeter as a source of evidence for reasons of invasion of privacy; it transpired that the police hadn’t obtained the necessary search warrant to use it. Not such a smart move after all.
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Technorati Tags: smart meters

Spectrum. Mention the word and most peoples eyes (and sometimes mine) glaze over. However, when you tell them just how much the ‘thin air’ around us is worth, they tend to open again. In 2003, the Government sold the spectrum used to operate Mobile 3G networks to operators for £22bn. Never mind that the mobile industry was almost bankrupted in the process, and that no-one is likely to pay anywhere near that much again. This is big money. The Treasury, through Ofcom, has taken notice ever since.

In today’s world of yawning budget deficits and scrambling efforts to bridge the divide, spectrum is seen as prime candidate for raising revenue. The Ministry of Defence, whose budget is of course particularly tight at the moment, jumped on the bandwagon earlier than most. Since the end of 2008, they have been busily setting out their wares. And what wares they are. MoD currently ‘owns’ 35% of all spectrum below 15 GHz, a lot which is usable for commercial operations. Commercial users haven’t previously had access to it or been able to pay for rights to use it. Since the 2005 Cave Review, plans have been in the works for it to lease large parts of its current holdings to commercial users and keep all the proceeds. Except when it actually needs to use it in times of national crisis. Then, all bets are off.

All of this has taken up much time at Intellect recently. Renting spectrum is much like renting land in many ways. The landlord needs to be good at sharing information with current and prospective tenants and be able act as a conduit for it. They need to have the ability to actively manage the land they own so that the tenant can use it effectively and, finally, they need to be able to put in place measures to stop trespassers from interfering with what the land is being used. Like land, a given piece of spectrum should ideally have one user. Its possible to share, but it gets a whole lot more complicated when you do. All of this requires resources. If Intellect members are going to rent spectrum from the MoD, they need to have the confidence that MoD can effectively manage and place a value on the spectrum that it owns. In much the same way that Ofcom currently does.

Intellect takes its role as the spectrum ‘tenants’ guardian seriously. A number of members have substantial interests in how it is allocated and used. After all, most of them manufacture devices that need access to spectrum to operate. There is a role for industry in educating the MoD on how to value its spectrum, and how to lease it in a way that actually maximises the potential uses that commercial users can make of it, thereby determining how much they will be willing to pay. Our position paper, MoD Spectrum Divestment: The Intellect Perspective, lays out how we believe MoD can optimise its release process to ensure that the UK gains maximum economic and societal benefit from what is an unprecedent release of spectrum on to the market, and how will we continue to work with them to enable maximum benefits for UK plc to be realised. Our continuing engagement with MoD on these issues is being handled by the Intellect Wireless Council. If you are an Intellect member with interests in spectrum issues, you should be involved.

Technorati Tags: Ministry of Defence, Ofcom, Public Sector Assets, Spectrum, Wireless

Although this time of the year is known as the silly season there is clearly some smart thinking going on.

I came across this article published yesterday about ‘Smart Grid 2.0: ‘The Soft Grid’. The ‘Soft Grid’ referred to here is an emerging market segment described as the ‘countless new applications needed to improve the generation, distribution, consumption and monitoring of the Grid’. (Contrast the ‘smart grid’, which, generally speaking, refers to infrastructure hardware.) The potential of this ‘intelligent software’ is noted and comparison to Apple’s approach to the third-party development of applications for its products is made.
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Technorati Tags: Smart Grid, soft grid, software

Yesterday, the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s consultation on smart metering for electricity and gas closed. As consumer groups and energy companies took to the airwaves, I expect the printers at 3 Whitehall Place were working overtime as a no-doubt plethora of responses from a range of interested parties were being churned out to make a long summer reading list for the officials involved.

Amongst others, the Energy Networks Association, and the Energy Retail Association have submitted responses urging the Government to make decisions quickly. This is a view that I agree with. Talking to Intellect’s members, there is no doubt there is genuine enthusiasm and excitement with regard to the roll-out of smart meters. As such, the Government’s response to this consultation will be eagerly awaited.

So what did Intellect’s response say?
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Technorati Tags: smart meters

An interesting posting appeared on Google’s public policy blog yesterday which once again set out not only their support for smart meters but what they are doing to better leverage their use. One key part of this is the Google PowerMeter. In brief, it will enable users to access information about their own energy use on their iGoogle home page. This reminds me of an earlier posting which highlighted that it is possible to receive updates about your home’s energy use via Twitter.
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Technorati Tags: Google, smart meters

So the government’s big low carbon transition plan was launched today mapping out how we’ll achieve emissions cuts of 34% by 2020. It’s a beast of a document at over 200 pages but any strategy that promises the creation of 1.2 Million “green jobs” isn’t going to be able to tell you how on a couple of sides of A4. Overall it seems to do a good job of pulling together previously disparate policies in to a coherent transition plan and we welcome that. I’ve included a summary list of all the big ideas below and we’re particularly pleased to see the reinforced commitment to smart metering and smart grids. However, ICT and associated technologies are critical enablers of this transition and don’t seem to get much of a mention elsewhere. Maybe that’s fair enough when the document points out that half of the proposed carbon cuts by 2020 would come from changes to the power sector. But the 15% that will come from making homes more efficient, 10% from workplace improvements, and 20% from changing how we travel (the other 5% from agriculture and land use) will also benefit from ICT applications. The problem here is the lack of a market for these already-available technologies and we must be smarter at addressing how we tackle this.

Summary points:

• Plans are projected to create 1.2m “green jobs”
• Every government department will be required to meet a carbon budget alongside its financial budget.
• Domestic energy prices would rise in 2020 to pay for some of the required changes. Hopes are this would be offset with energy efficiency savings in 7m homes and financial help for the poorest consumers.
• launches consultation on the details of the government’s feed-in tariff, re-named the “clean energy cash-back” scheme, which will pay people and businesses a premium for generating low-carbon electricity. A similar scheme for renewable heat will follow in April 2011.
• Introduces plans for a “pay as you save” scheme for homeowners to receive loans to insulate their homes, with money repaid by savings in energy costs.
• Up to £6m to start development of a “smart grid”, including a policy road map next year.
• Launch of the new Office for Renewable Energy Deployment in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to speed up the growth of renewables in the UK.
• DECC to take direct responsibility from Ofgem for establishing a new grid access regime within 12 months.
• Up to £180m would be made available to promote wind and tidal power – this includes setting up a low-carbon economic area in the south-west to promote marine technologies and money for up to 3,000 wind turbines off the UK’s shores by 2020.
• £15m to establish a Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre that will develop the next generation of nuclear power infrastructure.
• £10 million will go to improving infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.
• Challenging 15 villages, towns or cities to be test-beds for piloting future green initiatives.

Although it may feel longer with all this sunshine (bar the recent tropical-style action) and long summer nights, it’s been a little over three weeks since the launch of Digital Britain. In this time we’ve seen the appearance of the Digital Economy Bill on the legislative programme for next term and today, an announcement from BT detailing the initial stages of their FTTC roll out. For all those broadband wonks out there these developments represent a significant step towards what I have heard termed, and I kid you not, next generation nirvana. (more…)

Technorati Tags: Broadband, digital britain, FTTC, Next Generation Access

As Dan Smyth very presciently points out , Stephen Carter got a lot of undeserved criticism in the media when Digital Britain when it came out. Sure, it could have gone further in a number of areas. No-one likes a new tax. There could have been more mention of the role for satellite networks in delivering some of the commitments in it. This is especially the case for Intellect, given our position as the only major European trade body that representing all major European satellite network operators. But I like my DAB radio, and I think I could handle £6 a year as my contribution towards NGA deployment and giving everyone a legal right to broadband.

Regardless of what could have been said in Digital Britain, the key point is: Almost alone in Europe (with the exception of France) the UK now knows what direction its communications infrastructure, and associated industries, is going in in a very comprehensive way. We do have a set of policies to build on. The legislative tools to implement them are about to start making their way through parliament. I know for a fact that many other EU member states see Digital Britain as being far ahead of their own plans and are looking enviously at us. The Tories could do with noting this, rather than simply scoring political points over what could or might have been said in it. Maybe I will be forced to eat my words when the Tory Review of the Creative Industries comes out, but as I haven’t seen a draft yet I’d just urge them to be a bit more constructive.

This is why, more than most ministers in the current Government, I will be particularly sad when Carter steps down. His speech at our Consumer Electronics Conference was particular short, snappy and free of meaningless jargon. My view of it was helped by him name-checking Intellect heavily of course, but regardless of that it was definitely one of the highlights of the day. When asked, by the chair Maggie Philbin, what he thought his most important piece of technology would be in 20 years, his answer, “a pacemaker”, was pretty sharp. He also publicly confirmed that Intellect will be working with Government to ensure the recommendations outlined in Digital Britain are implemented. However much praise Intellect got yesterday, there is no denying that Carter simply gets ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is. Some stand-outs included his statement that “the key role for Government in its relations with business is clarity” and his firm implication that the best policy comes from ministers who aren’t political careerists and therefore don’t care what enemies they make. I couldn’t agree more. We do of course need as many democratically elected ministers as we can get. But we also know how difficult it is for Labour to find them at the moment. There is no denying that peers can sometimes be really effective at policy making and implementation because they aren’t always climbing the greasy pole.

I also know a number of the civil servants who’ve worked under Carter as a minister fairly well. Gushing is not too strong a word. In the words of one I was talking too – “When we wrote Digital Britain, Carter actually had us all effectively co-ordinated and working towards a common goal, we felt like we were achieving something”. Anyone who talks to civil servants regularly knows that, in their language, this is tantamount to them voting him as the greatest Briton of all time. Not that I would. But you get the message. Carter was that rare beast- a politician who really does know what he is talking about. Somehow we need to get hold of more of them.

So I guess the question now is, will we get a replacement? And who will it be? In fact, will Labour be able to find someone to pilot the related Digital Economy Bill through parliament? We can but wonder. But whether Carter gets his mooted role as Chief Executive at ITV or not, he has done a lot to move the debate on how Government supports ICT development forward. For that, he should be applauded.

Technorati Tags: BIS, DCMS, digital britain, Lord Carter, NGA, Ofcom, Stephen Carter, UK ICT

The collapse of the Postal Services Bill led the news last night and – along with Andy Murray – dominated much of the quality press this morning. The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s announcement has caused much head scratching with all the stakeholders as they figure out what lies ahead.

Politically, the Bill has been a hot potato from the start, with the Labour Party demonstrating an ability to tear itself apart over it, and the Conservatives, with their support for the Bill, adding further pressure to the Government. So what happens now?

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Technorati Tags: Andy Murray, Conservatives, Labour, Royal Mail

Partying like it's 1399

Following last week’s publication of a UK national Cyber Security Strategy, the FT devoted a leader column to “Cyber security risk” highlighting the growing threat of cyber warfare to national security and resilience and its future role in conflict.

This is a subject close to the technology industry’s heart, and the recent publication of a national Cyber Security Strategy has now also focused Government’s attention on what many believe is the newest theatre of war. Whilst we at Russell Square therefore applaud the FT’s interest in the subject, I cannot help but disagree with their fundamental conclusion – that developed economies (including the UK) are better placed to withstand the collapse or compromise of our digital networks than less developed equivalents.

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Technorati Tags: Cybersecurity