The Human Case for Broadband
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humanITy Briefing Paper 8
Date: 04/06/2003
Article
1. Introduction
1.1 So far, the case for the rapid deployment of broadband technology has been based on two business models: business to customer; and business-to-business.
1.2 The business to customer model has assumed that as the cost of line rentals and call charges dwindle to zero, the revenue loss of telecoms companies will be made good by the sale of on-line information. The Holy Grail has been the full-length feature film.
1.3 In the business-to-business domain the main theme has been the transfer of large files, graphics, video clips, and databases.
1.4 While both of these models is valuable, it would be a serious error in social policy and in revenue generation to forget the other three models:
- Customer to business (Section 2)
- People to people (section 3); and
- People to work place.
2. Customer to Business
2.1 So far, the growth of on line services have caused two distinct classes of problems:
- Internet banking and other services have already begun to have an effect on the availability of local, human intermediaries
- Call centres have led to a substantial number of dissatisfied customers.
2.2 Broadband can be used to overcome both these kinds of problems:
2.2.1 When people experience difficulty on line with a standard set-up they have to log off before registering an enquiry using the land line telephone. They cannot always readily recall the details of their problem and the whole process is lengthy and unrewarding. Broadband will allow simultaneous on-line activity and conversation so that a person with a difficulty can present it in situ to a help desk.
2.2.2 During a standard call centre enquiry the customer is passed sequentially from one operative to another until she either reaches the place she needs to be, finds a voice mail, is cut off or is entrapped in a loop. Broadband will allow centres to retain customers with simultaneous contacts until the correct person is found. This should reduce customer dissatisfaction and increase customer loyalty.
2.3 Customer to business relations might also decrease isolation and increase
efficiency. Here are two examples:
- A customer receives a complex letter from a bank about the terms of a loan. He is able to pick up the telephone and fix a teleconference with a staff member at the bank; this is more than a telephone call as the two parties can see each other. The bank employee can smile reassuringly at the beginning of the interview, signaling that there may be a tangle but the caller has no need to worry. This will make the conversation much easier for both sides. If the letter raises difficulties then both parties can put the text on screen and study it together.
- A client has a problem with a benefits form. She telephones a Benefits Agency Office and is encouraged to enter a confidential PIN; this means she does not have to wait for a visit from a dedicated social worker but can be referred for teleconference assistance.
2.4 In this way broadband can break the dichotomy of the clumsy on line service and the call centre on the one hand and self help on the other. These hybrid digital/human, software/skinwear systems will decrease isolation, increase efficiency and therefore cut public sector social costs and business costs.
3. People To People
3.1 Obviously, people will continue to receive and send ever larger files to each other of photographs, video clips &c but always on systems will allow people to construct inter dependency loops without the clumsiness of teleconferencing. Here are two examples:
- A group of people in a small hamlet contact each other daily to arrange school runs and shopping expeditions. This is particularly helpful with sudden illness or the need for a product on an emergency basis. An elderly person circulates six people on the loop and finds one is going into town. He authorises his friend to pick up a prescription by sending a document with a digital signature.
- A small voluntary organisation loses a loyal member from a rota, contacts all members and is able to pick up and confirm the first response.
3.2 The use of always on, conference loops will: increase efficiency, reduce anxiety, increase cohesion and result in ecological improvements.
3.3 There are also two other major benefits from always on systems:
- They allow more effective communication between contiguous communities that have difficulty in establishing 'real' relationships. This should help to establish the kind of contiguous twinning referred to in Briefing Paper 2.
- Communities of interest spanning geographical boundaries can be established. This will be particularly important for chronically sick people and their carers who establish reciprocal permission to handle emergencies.
4. People to Work Place
4.1 The combination of broadband and wireless will allow us to break the dichotomy between working at home alone and traveling to work (see Briefing Paper 6). This will allow for mutual support amongst small groups of workers who can arrange such matters as childcare to their own satisfaction by moving from house to house.
5. The Social Content of Broadband
5.1 So far the Government has been content to leave broadband roll out to the private sector but there is a danger that it will further exacerbate the digital divide and deprive excluded individuals and groups of a major opportunity for progress and inclusion.
5.2 The Government should commission research to investigate the hypothesis that access to broadband increases social inclusion and it should look at the implications of broadband for its own e-services, particularly in the area of hybrid digital/human assistance.
5.3 The Government should consider diverting some of the funding which currently finances non public service programmes of the BBC to support broadband access for the least well off.
6. Resources
- Broadband Stakeholder Group – www.broadbanduk.org
- Telewest blueyonder – http://info.blueyonder.co.uk/publish/index.html
- BT Openworld – www.btopenworld.com/broadband/partner/affinity?TDB