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e-Minister talks up wireless
Timms notes rural broadband clamour
Interview
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The politician in the firing line for the Mobile Campaign, Stephen Timms, started his job as e-Minister by declaring commercial WiFi to be legal in the UK - a great start. So we asked him what his attitude to open wireless in this country really is...
The first thing on our agenda was: "What's your attitude to our campaign to get the London Underground opened up to wireless?" And his response: "A lot of people would like access on the underground... but what the implications for London Underground Limited are, I don't know."
I don't know? What sort of Ministerial reply is this?
An honest one, it seems. Astonishingly, the Department of Trade and Industry seems to have made a mistake - as a reporter from the FT was heard to say after meeting him for the first time - he appears to be someone who knows what he's doing in the job as e-Minister. He also seems somewhat unusual, as top politicians go, in being at least relatively BS-free.
Well, that's an early diagnosis, and it's far too soon to be sure; but the first sign that all was not quite conventional was when he answered his own email, and agreed to meet to discuss the Mobile Campaign's objectives.
Timms could easily claim to be a programmer; he did actually do some programming assignments when he first joined software company Logica. But clearly, he knows enough about programmer culture in the UK to realise that no genuine code-hack would regard that as real programming; and he concedes without being questioned that he was more involved in marketing assignments - after he left college in 1978 with the plan of doing a post-graduate Operational Research.
The first thing he did when he arrived at the DTI was to announce what everybody had unofficially known for some months - that the antiquated law making it illegal to run a commercial wireless operation on licence-exempt frequency bands, was ending. And again, creditably, he didn't try to take the glory for this decision which, he says, was taken by his predecessor, Douglas Anexander, who launched the consultation process back in October last year.
So, lots of good points for the new e-Minister; does this mean he really understands the importance of wireless in the UK?
Short answer: not yet. Not entirely surprisingly, perhaps, he seems not to be up to speed on this issue after just a couple of months on the top floor of the Victoria Street office.
So he makes sense: "I think wireless is going to be an important part of the broadband future." But he's not yet inspired: "I think this is interesting; the idea of sitting in airport departure lounges and being able to access your network - that's very attractive - but it is also the case that there are significant bits of the country now where wireless looks like being the first way we will get broadband available. ADSL won't be, cable isn't, satellite is - well, let's say it's available, but is largely one-way. Wireless is potentially the way of opening up broadband more widely."
The point, as far as WiFi war-net enthusiasts are concerned, is that WiFi can do everything, now, which people hope to get from third generation phone networks one day. And one of the big steps in getting there, is to open up the faster bandwidth used by Wifi 5, the IEEE 802.11a standard running at 50 megabits per second on the 5 GHz band. On this, Timms gets full marks for honesty; when asked what the current status of 11a regulations are, he admits: "I don't know."
But he probably needs to know less about WiFi than other things in his remit. Where Timms can make a difference will be in the areas where Government spending can occur and be directed:
"One of the things striking for me in last weeks is how much of a call there is for broadband in those rural areas. Letters written by MPs on behalf of constituents, and fair number of emails direct to me, as well. That call will need to be addressed," he says with the air of someone who is reporting a decision, rather thanthinking about what would be nice.
And then the police announcement: "So I think an important and very welcome step is Gordon Brown's spending announcements; we don't know the exact figures, but there is going to be significant extra spending on broadband - aimed at getting broadband to schools. It will be for public procurement of broadband. Now, I think that we will be able to use that extra spending to further the roll out of the infrastructure and to make the services available more widely; one of my jobs over the next few months will be to work out how we can be smart about using that extra spending which will be made."
What will happen, exactly, will be decided later this year, Timms promises. "In the Autumn we will set up this regional broadband unit, and set up groups of people in each of the regions to look at how we can do this. Our advisors will apply their minds to this in the Autumn. They will look to bring together public sector would-be users of broadband. If you can get them together into a larger body, the likelihood of getting a service provider interested is greater."
And next year, following the Puttnam report in the future of broadcast media, the new Communications Bill? Timms wasn't giving anything away other than that the Puttnam report is out, and looks "interesting" and that the decisions will be taken later this year.
So, moving onto the other area where Government influence can play a part, what does he think about the Campaign to bring wireless to the Underground? His answer makes it clear, at least, that he hasn't had a chance to discuss this with LUL; he asks what their response has been to the idea. A response, of course, would be a step in the right direction; getting one would indeed be the first miracle, given the corporate nature of the administrative body that runs the trains under the capital.
I explained this in a few succinct words. "OK, well. I can't say I am engaged with that, but the issue has been raised with me. I can see the attractiveness! and a lot of people would find it very helpful to have access on the underground. But at this stage, I can't take a position on it. I have to talk to people in the department of Transport and so on."
Nice to meet you, Stephen, and we hope to have the chance to advance this matter with you over the next months and, hopefully, years of your time in office.
I think, in all honesty, he'll need to add to his advisor list. He needs to investigate World Wide Packets if he wants to know how to drag the UK into real broadband - whether he actually buys from WWP or not isn't the issue, because I don't think any of his DTI advisers know about the technology, or the business concept they have come up with. They need to.
He also has to get his head around the conflicts between orthodox third-generation phone and amateur wireless - a conflict which his department is reluctant, I think, to look in the face. They have an awful lot of income dependent on 3G succeeding, but what matters is to get this decision right.
Going around Europe, one is struck by the fact that wireless access is almost commonplace in hotels in capital cities everywhere - except in Britain. And although there are companies in Britain who are trying to set up to handle it, they are hopelessly out of their depth, simply because they have no experience in the field at all, while their rivals from other countries are into their second year of deployment.
Too much of the UK's future depends on getting back into the race on high technology. High tech isn't "fashionable" any more, and it's too easy to make excuses for delay, inattention, and focus on other areas. But the fashion will change, and awareness will return; and that's when decisions taken, now, will pay off - or be cursed for being missed.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
