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Broadband revolution

Brown's white heat

It is 45 years since Harold Wilson ignited Labour's annual conference by promising a Britain forged "in the white heat of revolution", in a speech that helped unite the party and played no small part in Labour's victory in 1964. If Gordon Brown is looking for a big idea that would appeal to everyone, he should embrace new technology wholeheartedly. Britain should be at the forefront of the global broadband revolution because that is where jobs and economic growth will increasingly come from.

Yesterday, doubtless in response to David Cameron's clever dismissal of him as an analogue prime minster in a digital age, Mr Brown launched an online version of prime minister's questions using YouTube. But since he is asking for video clips to be submitted by June 21, it will not be regarded as cutting-edge by a generation reared on instant messaging, blogging and twittering. Later, Mr Brown reeled off a list of Labour's public initiatives to Google's annual jamboree including broadband into schools, electronic border controls and electronic data in hospitals, with more to come. The real issue is whether Britain will have the broadband capacity to stay among the leading nations. The system needs to deliver not just high-definition web television, peer-to-peer file-sharing and virtual worlds, but the revolution that could transform the delivery of medical services, education and also video communication that could help solve the care of old people in a big way.

The government would like broadband to be delivered by the private sector. There is, however, a troubling gap between a national vision of high-speed broadband to the home (as happens in South Korea, which has a government-backed industrial policy) and the perceptions of most big companies, like BT, that the market does not justify the heavy investment needed. That is why, after 25 years of debate, fibre-optic cable, which has huge capacity, still has not been delivered to the home. It also explains the concern that the spectrum which is soon to be auctioned by Ofcom - which could deliver wireless broadband everywhere - may not in the end be used for bridging the digital divide.

One of the main reasons Europe is ahead of the US in wireless communications is because governments and corporations negotiated a common standard, GSM. It hardly makes the headlines but has had a huge effect. Since the availability of very fast broadband is as important to the public as it is to the private sector, would it not be possible for local authorities and some of the big operators such as BT (the only large European telephone company without a mobile subsidiary) to collaborate to ensure we get the broadband we need?

As it is, everything is happening piecemeal. Some councils such as Westminster are using wireless (Wi-Fi) to spearhead the improvement of public services. But if you walk around London or any other city you will encounter a jungle of Wi-Fi "hot spots", most of them locked or requiring payment. What we need is ubiquitous, affordable broadband at home and on the move to take full advantage of the digital revolution unfolding before our eyes. That may need public and private collaboration. The government may say its policy is to leave it to market forces, yet the Delphic guidelines bestowed on Ofcom require it to operate "with a bias against intervention but with a willingness to intervene firmly, promptly and effectively where required".

Yesterday's statistics from the OECD show that as of December 2007 Britain had no fibre-optic cables to the home - while 10% of Koreans enjoyed it - and the UK was lying 11th in the overall broadband league table, with six other European countries ahead of it. This is not bad but Britain could do, and must do, much better. The prime minister has a great chance to seize the initiative. With broadband communications who dares, wins.

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