The government plans to direct Ofcom (the first it has ever done this) to implement the, glamorously titled, Wireless Spectrum Modernisation Programme. Through it, The Digital Dividend is about to become a reality, as analogue TV is switched off by the end of 2011. You, civil servants, parliamentarians and their researchers look on, slightly bemused, as those of us who live and breathe spectrum (it is thin air after all…) thrash out the GHz, the MHz, The LTE’s, The WiMax, the DVB T2’s, and all that go with them. All too often, the debate bypasses why these kinds of issues are crucial to Mr. Joe Voter, why real parliamentary engagement is so important and why UK Citizens need representation. Part of this process is making these issues understandable for those representatives.

So why is spectrum, and by implication the digital dividend, so important to your every day man, or woman, on the street? (more…)

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.

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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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.

I’ve always wondered why we’ve not been back to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. A mixture of astronomical costs – in every sense of the word - and ebbing of the Cold War no doubt played a large part in dulling this ambition. The result today is a generation of people for whom space means little more than a decaying space station, a powerful telescope and Battlestar Galactica (if their inner geek will admit it). But the reality is that there’s a lot more going on high above our heads than just floating unshaved cosmonauts and buzz-cutted yanks, and today’s launch of the new Space Innovation and Growth Team (IGT) aims to get the UK excited about space again. (more…)

We all know that technology is evolving faster than we can keep track of; for example, web 2.0 solutions are just being implemented across the economy on a wider scale, but ‘techies’ are already developing and debating web 4.0. No doubt the future will enable us to do so much more with the help of technology. However, part of this future depends upon reliable and tested identity management processes. I, for one, do not want four other “Jon’s” running around using my identity and money simply because technology enables them to.

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I have just written an article for iQ about connecting the poorest 1 billion people to the internet. The real objective has to be an ‘internet for the entire world’ - all 6.7 billion of us. And that means in all languages, scripts, geographies, abilities and environments in which humans live and work.
Do you think this is possible?
Read the full article in May’s edition of iQ.

I was at the launch event of ‘The UK’s Digital Road to Recovery’ yesterday, a joint report from the LSE and Washington based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which assesses the employment benefits of investment in three key areas of the UK’s digital infrastructure. The headline figure from the report suggests that £15 billion of investment in broadband, smart grid and intelligent transport systems could result in 700,000 jobs retained or created in the UK.

There was a lively debate with the delegates over the 700,000 figure, with some in the audience querying the validity of the job growth claims, and others questioning the availability of a £15 billion stimulus in the current climate. (more…)

As expected there were no big giveaways from Alistair Darling in this year’s budget. Whilst it was nowhere near as drastic as the recent second Irish budget in which taxes were hiked and budgets were slashed, the Chancellor gave a keen sense that the UK is battening down the hatches to weather the economic storm. But it was not all doom and gloom, and indeed there were plenty of positive points for the technology industry to take. So was this the first ‘Technology Budget’? (more…)

If Lord Carter fixed all the points in the Digital Britain report, would this make the UK fit for purpose to compete in a global digital economy? This was perhaps one of the more forward looking points raised at today’s Digital Britain summit, where it was a who’s who of policy makers on the issue. But it was our very own Director General, John Higgins, speaking on a panel with Lord Carter, who ventured to say that this would not be the finish line for the UK.

While the work of Digital Britain is an ambitious, welcome and vital step, it is only the first rung in the ladder. Providing the right digital infrastructure and competitive environment will enable the public and private sectors to leverage the benefits to create growth, jobs and new services. But there needs to be more.

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