Recently, I’ve detected some very exciting digital
developments which could be profoundly important for the prosperity of the city
and wider region, transforming employment opportunities and the economic
landscape. All the talk at business meetings may be about Siemens and
renewables, but something else is stirring which some have claimed may be just
as significant.
The digital city concept had at its core the presence of a
unique, local telecoms provider in KC and the availability of a network ripe
for development to provide the infrastructure - or so-called plumbing - for
major developments in education and business.
That concept gained credibility from the late 1990s as a
result of the launch and development of Kingston Interactive Television (KIT),
KC’s ground-breaking internet television service delivering video on demand and
TV streaming via broadband. It was a truly pioneering service which was hugely ambitious
in both its technology and objectives. In truth, it was way ahead of its time.
KIT was wound up in 2006 because KC could no longer justify a
huge investment, which had come too early for commercial viability. But it had
some significant outcomes, including that it was a key reason why the BBC chose
Hull as the base for a major regional centre and it was used by the corporation
as the testbed for a number of innovative interactive services, which informed
later developments such as Freeview.
Now KC is again leading the way in developing digital
infrastructure. This time, the company has embarked upon on a programme to
install “lightning-fast” broadband across its East Yorkshire network. It’s
early days, but the new service, KC LIghtstream, is delivering remarkable
results and winning customers fast.
After relatively small-scale trials in Woodmansey, near
Beverley, and Hull’s Great Thornton Street Estate, KC has begun a major
rollout, starting in Beverley, and now has more than 800 subscribers for a
service that guarantees broadband download speeds of 100 megabits per second
(mbps), which is four times faster than the Government’s definition of
“super-fast” broadband.
Just last week Beverley was declared the broadband capital of the
UK, with the fastest speeds in the country. Speed test site Netindex showed
Beverley as the fastest UK broadband location, with an average download speed
of 43 mbps – nearly six times the UK average - as a result of the KC
Lightstream performance.
The remarkable speeds are delivered because the data travels
down fibre-optic cables fed through to customers’ homes, replacing traditional
copper connections. KC is stealing a march on other Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), such as BT, by installing Fibre To The Home (FTTH), rather than Fibre
To The Cabinet (FTTC) - a connection box in the street. Elsewhere in the UK,
connections are slowed down by copper cables for the last part of the data
journey. In Lightstream premises, speeds are not constrained and the technology
is future-proof, enabling acceleration of download speeds as demand for digital
data and content grows.
The results seen already are impressive - users of the new
service can download music albums in just two seconds, hour-long television
programmes in 31 seconds and high-definition films within two minutes. It’s
truly a revolution in accessing information and entertainment in homes which
now frequently have multiple digital devices
being used at the same time.
But this new network is potentially even more significant in
terms of its power to enable the development of East Yorkshire’s emerging
digital sector. It has been interesting to note Hull’s growing credentials in
this sector - in website and app development, gaming, social media and other
disciplines. Indeed, that capability and credibility will be showcased this
weekend (17th & 18th March) at Platform 2012, an event at the University of
Hull focused on the huge gaming industry.
Quietly, Hull is gaining ground as a centre of knowledge
jobs, with technology a key element, supported by high-quality educational
establishments, such as the university and Hull College. Also important in this
picture is the Hull Digital community of entrepreneurs and developers, which plans
its own significant event, HD LIve, at the university on 1st November this
year.
Factors are coming together to accelerate this welcome
development of technology-based and enabled jobs in the knowledge economy -
jobs that will be vital to achieve a re-balancing from public to private sector
and blue to white collar employment.
KC’s commercial and financial director Sean Royce talked about this change recently when setting out the benefits for businesses of the
Lightstream rollout. The huge boost to
broadband capability will encourage start-ups and SMEs focused on activities
such as online retailing, app development and gaming.
Mr Royce pointed out that digital industries already
generate £130 billion for the UK economy - 10 per cent of gross added value -
and employ six per cent of the workforce. The sector also continues to grow,
despite the economic climate. It’s a trend the Government recognises and wants
to encourage. It plans to commit £780 million to support the development of
super-fast broadband and mobile provision across the UK to help to deliver a world-class digital
infrastructure. Estimates are that the investments by Government and the
private sector could create 600,000 new jobs and pump £18 million into the UK
economy.
One local digital entrepreneur, John Connolly, wrote in a recent blog on the Hull Digital site that the rapid development of the local
broadband network will enable businesses to work and communicate in new,
faster, more efficient and effective ways, including through home and remote
working. His view was that the Lightstream network would be “the backbone of
business and education in the city for years to come”, enabling the development
of exciting new enterprises and ways of learning.
And, although large-scale employers, such as Smith &
Nephew, Reckitt Benckiser and, indeed, KC,
are hugely important to the East Yorkshire economy, SMEs are the real
backbone of UK Plc, providing 60 per cent of private sector jobs.
So, while the headline news is how Siemens, the burgeoning
offshore wind industry and other forms of renewable energy will bring new
prosperity to Hull and the Humber, it’s not the only story of economic
potential and job creation. No doubt renewables will continue to hog the
headlines, but the development of digital infrastructure, businesses and jobs may
be just as vital over the long term.
