Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![23 April 1996] [Continued Atlantic, have publicly announced their commitment to the deployment of the Information Superhighway within the next five years. European countries such as France and Germany have also announced their intention to invest, driven by a less liberal regime, which allows little competition for infrastructure. The “Autoroute d’Information” study by the French Government suggested an £18bn investment by 2010 and is seeking business partners. Within the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has recently announced its commitment to a superhighway completed by 2010 at a cost of £100bn plus. Singapore has announced its “Intelligent Island Vision” with a plan to commit to fibre in the home, with a completion date of 2000. This is an expensive option, which could only be justified in a monopolistic environment. STANDARDS AND INCOMPATABILITY Standards in Telephony Networks Standards are a significant issue for telephony networks. They enable end-to-end delivery of services across networks and drive down the costs of commonly available equipment. BT actively participates within all major standards bodies and encourages the adoption of agreed standards. A recent example of the adoption of standards is Group Special Mobile (GSM), the European standard for digital cellular systems that now allows interoperability across Europe on equipment from different suppliers. It can take time for the main network standards bodies (such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)) to reach agreement. This can lead to operators adopting local variants for a particular technology, confined to particular geographic boundaries and to particular equipment suppliers. The problem has been dealt with by installing “gateways” at interconnection points between networks so that end-to-end delivery can be offered. Standards in Broadband Networks New standards bodies or self-interest groups driven by major commercial interests, such as the Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) have been established to promote standards in broadband networks, and have streamlined the standards making process. These bodies will help set service performance standards as well as technical interconnection standards, to help ensure uniformity of service characteristics. The superhighway at the international level will initially become a network of interconnected national networks. However, performance and services will be limited until international standards are agreed and adopted. These issues could be avoided at the national level if an integrated network were available. The danger we face in the UK is a patchwork of local networks leading to inter-networking bottlenecks and lack of uniformity of service performance standards. QUESTION 2 What services are being provided, and should be developed/will be required, within for example the following areas: (i) public information, (ii) commerce, (iii) finance, (iv) education, (v) industrial training, (vi) health, (vii) social services. We are still in the early days of the information society. Services being provided now are shaped by the as yet limited availability and capability of the underlying networks. Many of the services will not require high bandwidths and could be delivered using existing networks. However, these narrowband applications are pointing the way to broadband and demonstrate the need for higher bandwidth applications. As well as the developments discussed here, we believe that entirely new activities will emerge. The Internet, for example, has already generated new pastimes such as “surfing the net” and exploring Cyberspace and new products such as interactive magazines. The discussion below includes description of developments and trials that BT and others have begun. PUBLIC INFORMATION The information superhighway will enable faster and easier communication between the public and the whole range of public bodies. Several government departments already publish on the Internet and responses from the general public can also be made available. We can expect an increase in the volume of information exchanged between public bodies and those they represent, bringing improved accountability and greater democracy. BT Interactive TV is a trial involving 2,500 homes, 5,500 people, 8 schools, 4 public access terminals in Colchester and Ipswich. It combines the telephone with the television and offers nine main services: children’s TV, movies on demand, television programming on demand, music videos, High street (incorporating home shopping and home banking), games on demand, Adland (an interactive advertising service) and Local Life.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
