Enterprise and Culture Committee, 30 Mar 2004

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Official Report 252KB pdf

---

Broadband Inquiry

Agenda item 2 continues our inquiry into broadband in Scotland. The Public Petitions Committee has referred to us petition PE694, which deals with the availability of broadband services and happens to be an e-petition. We have before us Alan Kennedy, who initiated the petition. Would you like to make a brief opening statement?

I am probably unique as a witness in that I appear to be the only member of the public coming before the committee who has been involved as a complete novice in the tortuous process of trying to bring broadband to a rural community from scratch. Last September, I set up a small action group to try to get broadband to my area. We considered the British Telecom option, but decided that it was better to go for wireless. Since then, we have learned a lot and are now at the point at which we have identified and selected a broadband service provider and are working very hard to convince business and home users to sign up for the service. We expect to succeed shortly in the Whithorn and Isle of Whithorn areas, which will in turn act as drivers for the other areas that are targeted.

Our campaign has been hard work because there is absolutely no template for any group attempting to do what we are doing. My action group had, using its own private resources, to develop broadband technical appraisal systems, produce pre-qualifying questionnaires to assess the various suppliers, both technically and commercially, and work out tender evaluation processes to ensure fairness, value for money and so on. I give great credit to Scottish Enterprise's information technology manager in Dumfries and Galloway, who has nurtured, encouraged and advised us all the way.

Our group is a founder member of the south-west Scotland wireless broadband users group and is actively involved in helping other regional communities get through the various set-up processes without their having to go through our painful learning curve. As of last week, Moffat is wireless-broadband live. Other communities, such as Kirkconnel, Thornhill and Sanquhar are close behind.

Drawing on our experience, while remaining mindful of all of the evidence that has been submitted to the committee so far, I will raise some key points that are particularly pertinent to the process of getting broadband.

The take-up of broadband throughout Scotland, even in areas that are able to receive it, is low. I believe that part of the reason for that lies in the lack of a clear Government broadband strategy that makes everyone aware of where we want to be and what broadband can do for us. Until business and home users install broadband, they do not appreciate it or, more important, gain value from it. I have yet to hear of anyone regretting the fact that they have installed broadband. The oft-quoted remark by some that 98 per cent of Scots will eventually receive broadband, as if that were the final answer, irritates me because that will leave 100,000 potential users in some of the most disadvantaged areas—such as mine—abandoned in the communications stone age.

Despite the fact that all the various bodies that are responsible for publicising and promoting broadband tell us how well they are doing, the fact remains that, for those at the broadband sharp end—particularly in rural areas—the centrally developed messages have been poorly delivered and badly co-ordinated. Time and again, I have been told that the current television campaign for broadband simply increases frustration. It neither teaches nor informs and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

The current pamphlet that is issued by the broadband for Scotland initiative is little more than an advert for BT and needs a complete overhaul to reflect other opportunities fairly and in a balanced way. Conversely, I praise highly the role of the broadband bus from Glenrothes, which is a great idea that really helps. We need about 12 more such buses to get the broadband message across. Attendance on the bus should be compulsory for people in local government posts who clearly have not yet got the message that it is time to assist the process.

My written submission makes the point that if people want broadband, the worst thing that they can do is register with BT. A recent problem with BT in my region served only to make me think that there must be a better way—there must be a way that encourages competition and that allows small local networks to compete on even terms with BT. We have already heard that BT's charges for leased lines are prohibitively expensive. I wonder why. A similar situation arises with masts that are owned by mobile phone operators, BT and others, which could aid alternative service options but which are disappointingly costly to buy into.

Eventually, and in the general way of things, broadband will become part of our lives, as the road and rail networks became a vital part of daily life nearly 100 years ago. However, time is of the essence. The haves-and-have-nots broadband gap already exists in my region. Our outlook is stark, but broadband gives an opportunity to assist communities to survive, develop and—I hope—expand. Without it, opportunities will disappear and we will fall further behind. I commend my petition to the committee. I hope sincerely that the inquiry will help to bring about the action that is necessary to achieve my petition's aims.

I suggest that, paradoxically, the problems that you complain about have actually had a beneficial effect in your case. An organisation has been put together that has delivered substantially for the local community, not just through what it has delivered but through community involvement, whereas, if big brother in Edinburgh or London had simply provided everything on a plate for you, there might have been fewer benefits. Is there any truth in that?

There might be. I do not claim a great deal of credit for what my action group has done and I still feel that if we had had better support in getting across the message that broadband is not just about faster internet access, we could have done much better. We have canvassed the public through posters, public meetings, the radio, the press and by knocking on their doors, but I am constantly amazed—when reports come to me from the public—by how little people know about the benefits of broadband. We need a different approach from the centre to help communities such as mine appreciate the benefits and to make broadband happen.

Who has signed up to your service? Will you describe a cross-section of your users and what they use the service for?

We have a good cross-section of society. The Machars area that I come from is primarily rural, but there are lots of small businesses such as bed and breakfasts. We have Wigtown, which is the national book town, and other small businesses are starting up in the region. Many of those businesses use the service to demonstrate to their customers in the UK and abroad that they are up to date with the latest technology and are prepared to use it.

One of the problems that we have is in getting people to accept that the service does not stop with faster downloads. People sometimes fail to appreciate that they can download security patches—we have to be concerned about security these days—and software programmes that may assist in their work. People can tap into an amazing array of things on the internet. Many people say that they would do more, but they are frustrated by waiting for 20, 30 or 40-minute downloads. I am convinced that I would have had more signatures on my petition if people could have got through. If we are to encourage rural communities to promote small businesses and let them thrive, we have to offer them something like broadband.

Good afternoon. I understand that it is in order to wish you a happy birthday. First, how much will the service that you are going to offer to the residents of Whithorn cost and how will that compare to the cost of the service offered by BT? Secondly, you said that community involvement is a key factor. Could you tell us a little more about that?

Certainly. I will deal with the cost first. We went to a variety of service providers and whittled them down to a shortlist. The cost of the system that we are recommending is comparable with BT's—it is £30 a month for a home user and £40 a month for an enhanced service for business users, which compares pretty favourably with BT. The first reports from Moffat indicate that the download and upload data ratio is better than with BT, so we are pleasantly surprised with what we are finding.

It is interesting to note that, in assessing some of the tenders to get the best price, we found some very good offers. We perhaps did not choose those tenders for other reasons, but we found that independent service providers could offer pensioners a special rate of, say, £6 a month. All sorts of customer-friendly ideas were built in that we have not been able to detect in the current BT promotion, so there is quite a lot of mileage there. We believe that ours is a competitive offer. Given the take-up in Moffat, Whithorn and other areas, it seems that businesses and home users think so as well.

Given that a community action group that was founded on the energy of one person can be so successful in producing a regime that challenges BT on cost, what is the role of central Government?

The role of central Government is not only to allow and assist action groups such as mine to form and survive but perhaps to communicate how we do it. I have worked on these issues since last September. That has been demanding, and in many ways it has been great fun, but I do not intend to go out and tell the rest of Scotland how to do it. I am sure that there are communities out there that could benefit from our knowledge. If that sort of information was spread around, we might see more wireless networks springing up. Wireless is a fast-moving technology; there seems to be a new advance every month enhancing its capability.

You mentioned how the community aspect helps. Let me give you one example of how the community can help to get broadband. In one of the towns in my area, we had a lot of trouble convincing users that they should go for broadband and so far their numbers have not been sufficient to bring in a wireless network. However, across the estuary lies another small community, which also has an interest in broadband. If it had been possible to link the two communities together in a wireless network, the whole operation would have been made commercially viable. However, the problem lay in the fact that the second community had allowed all its interested people to register an interest with BT. It called a public meeting to say, "We're not going to get enough numbers for BT, but here's another wireless option." Three people turned up. Unfortunately, people in the community do not know who is registered with BT, so they cannot go out and reclaim the names.

I have made the point time and again that, if there was a centralised register of people who have an interest in getting broadband, BT and other independent service providers could tap into it. A common experience has been that, once the names have gone to BT, it is great if the trigger figure is reached but, if it is not, people have to start all over again. That is one of the biggest problems.

The point that I wanted to raise has already been raised by Chris Ballance. I welcome your support for the Glenrothes bus. Coming as it does from my constituency, it is of course something of great excellence.

Mr Kennedy, you say in your paper that pressure must be brought to bear on BT, of which you are quite critical in a number of ways, to make broadband technology available at lower cost. Representatives of BT were here last week giving evidence. I do not know whether you saw their paper or read the Official Report.

I saw it briefly this morning.

They demanded unequivocally that 100 per cent of exchanges be enabled and they wanted Executive assistance in doing that. They said that a public-private partnership would be needed for the final 5 per cent—or whatever the percentage was—of coverage of Scotland. They seemed to be alive to the issues that you are talking about. The issue is not just about costs; it is also about working with others in the partnership that BT talked about. Do you think that, in time, that is likely to cover the sort of problems that you have identified in areas such as yours?

Let me answer that from a slightly different angle. Most of us understand the BT trigger figures, but we need to consider how communities reach those figures. There are stories, which I am sure are not apocryphal, of people standing outside supermarkets taking down names and addresses to get the magic 500 or whatever. That is great for making the BT trigger figure, but it does not convince those people who have signed up, and who would probably sign up for a Red Cross appeal, that broadband will benefit them. The message about broadband must be much wider and simpler, so that we can get everyone involved.

It is not surprising that the BT take-up on broadband is so low. Having got the trigger figures, BT put in systems, but half the people did not know what they were signing up for in the first place. I also query whether BT is focused on getting out into smaller communities, which will not be reached by the signal because it is 6km down the wire or where the population is such that there are perhaps 100 users of a small exchange. From a layman's point of view, I do not hear that that is something that BT is focusing on. In other words, I do not have confidence. I would like to have confidence and I would like to tell the people in my area to have confidence, but I do not get that message yet.

You said that you did not want to make a career out of evangelising the rest of Scotland with that message, even though there might be some sense in doing that. Has Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway suggested that there might be mileage in relating or translating that experience elsewhere?

Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway was instrumental in helping us to set up the south-west Scotland user group, so we now have representatives from Moffat and will shortly have representatives from Thornhill and Sanquhar. We are all helping one another with the process of assessing the system that is being offered to us and deciding whether it is sensible for people to take it up. We are making it up as we go along, because there is no template for what we are doing, but I think that we are now gaining a fair bit of expertise. I would like to see that expertise spread but, as I said, I do not intend to do this across the whole of Scotland. It has been a very demanding exercise in my area, but I think that what we have done could be done elsewhere.

I do not think that we have any further questions, but your evidence has been helpful. Some of your written material was critical of BT, but what was more interesting for us was the positive side of what you said and the need to encourage the public and tell them about the potential that exists. Those are questions that we have been pursuing with the various witnesses who have been before us. It is not enough simply to offer the technology as if it was the latest kind of microwave; its benefits also have to be sold. Thank you very much for your evidence, Mr Kennedy. We shall take account of it as part of our inquiry.