Government Presents ‘Digital Britain’ Vision

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have published an Interim ‘Digital Britain’ report (the “Report”). The Report sets out the Government’s vision for a competitive and technologically enabled British economy. It promotes universal broadband access for all and commits the Government to work with business to develop the necessary infrastructure. The Report also recommends the creation of a Digital Rights Agency to coordinate attempts to prevent illicit file sharing on the Internet.

Crucial times and significant goals

The Report does not understate its own significance. The digital economy underpins our whole economy, and the digital information and communications sector is one of the three largest sectors in it, alongside financial services and energy. We are reminded that we live at a critical time in the digital age; a time of transformation. The success of our manufacturing and service industries will be defined increasingly by their ability to use and develop digital technologies. A successful Britain, it says, must be a “Digital Britain”. The Government’s goals are ambitious.

In the foreword of the Report, Stephen Carter, Minister for Communications, states that the goal of the final report will be to see if Government can:

“create an effective program and partnership for the Digital Economy; one that can drive the upgrading of our digital networks, significantly enhance our national competitive position in these critical markets, secure competition for choice and quality in content, connect with the interests of the rising, digital generation and improve access, affordability and inclusion for all”.

Best of British

Britain’s competitive advantage, or potential lack of it, is a recurring theme. We are informed that the European Commission’s global league table of digital adoption, skills and use shows that the UK has slipped down to a humbling twelfth place. Britain’s competitive position in the digital arms race cannot be taken for granted and needs to be driven forward. The Report emphasises that harnessing the power of the ‘digital society’ will, amongst other things, enable public services to be delivered more efficiently at a time when they will increasingly need to be.

Objectives and Actions

The Report outlines 5 Objectives and 22 Actions. The Objectives, in general terms, seek to:

· upgrade and modernise our digital networks;

· encourage investment in the digital economy;

· provide digital content to meet the needs of UK users;

· provide everyone with the access and skills to participate in the digital society;

· develop the infrastructure to enable widespread delivery of public services and a business interface with the Government, online.

Universal Service and Next Generation Broadband

One of the Actions outlines plans for a Universal Service Commitment to provide everyone in the UK with access to broadband. The Report also commits the Government to ensure that public services are accessible, online and easy to use and that everyone is sufficiently skilled to benefit from them.

The Actions recommend the establishment of a Government-led strategy group to remove barriers to the effective rollout of Next Generation Broadband (fibre optic based Internet delivery, which is many times faster than commonly used broadband). The Report includes details of Francesco Caio’s Government-commissioned examination of barriers to investment in Next Generation Broadband. The Government is to keep a watching brief on the availability and take up of fibre-optic broadband. Only BT and Virgin media are mentioned as having announced plans for fibre-optic rollout. The Government takes the view that in the short term, there is little evidence that UK customers would suffer a detriment from a lack of take-up of this service.

Detractors of the Report have already been quoted in the press expressing disappointment that the plans contain no commitment to rolling out fibre optics. Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture minister, was reported by the BBC as saying: “We’re very disappointed...We thought the report was going to contain a strategy…In France and Germany they are laying fibre [optics], in Japan they already have it.”

Competition for the BBC

The Report indicates a desire to challenge the monopoly of the BBC. The Government will establish whether a second public service organisation able to develop partnerships with the wider private and public sector is viable. Such an organisation, possibly drawing in part on Channel 4’s existing infrastructure, would be able to provide fresh competition to the elder statesman of British TV. The Report also invites the BBC to play a leading role in the digital age, encouraging the uptake of broadband and driving the development of platforms, with open standards available to all content providers and device manufacturers alike.

Multimedia

In relation to Mobile Wireless Networks, the Actions include making more radio spectrum available for next generation mobile services, encouraging operators on fixed-term licences to invest by making currently time-limited licences indefinite and subject to Advanced Incentive Pricing trading, and exploring opportunities for network sharing.

In the sphere of Digital Television networks, the Report trumpets the successes of the ongoing Digital Switchover from analogue TV and resolves to investigate how the Digital Switchover could be used to provide impartial information to viewers on the wider opportunities of digital technology. Similarly, the Government outlines its commitment to Digital Radio Migration.

Intellectual Property in the Digital Age

The Government’s proposals have also been keenly awaited in relation to intellectual property rights and Internet use. Last summer the Government consulted on methods to address illicit peer-to-peer file-sharing (see link for more details) BERR recently published responses to that consultation. They showed that there was no consensus between digital content owners, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and consumer organisations about how best to prevent widespread and unauthorised downloading of copyright protected material (see link for more details).

The Report proposes the creation of a Rights Agency to bring industry together to agree how to provide incentives for legal use of copyright material, to work together to prevent unlawful use by consumers, and to enable technical copyright-support solutions. The Government, perhaps in an admission that there is no painless solution to this problem, also ‘welcomes other suggestions on how these objectives should be achieved’.

Action 12 commits the Government to exploring with both distributors and right-holders ‘their willingness to fund, through a modest and proportionate contribution, such a new approach to civil enforcement of copyright (within the legal frameworks applying to electronic commerce, copyright, data protection and privacy) to facilitate an industry response to this challenge’. Here, the Government’s language is conciliatory and seemingly wary of the legal minefield through which any way forward must be found. In practice the opinions of the key players are unlikely to change significantly; finding a consensus and a ‘fair’ way of apportioning costs that everyone accepts is likely to be difficult.

In relation to enforcement of copyright, the Report sets out the Government’s intention to corral ISPs through the use of legislation to require them to notify alleged infringers (subject to reasonable levels of proof) that their conduct is unlawful and to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers to be made available to rights holders (together with personal details) on receipt of a Court Order. The Report states that it intends to consult on this approach soon, setting out its proposals in detail. The Government has recently consulted on this issue; the language of the Report indicates that perhaps the Government has listened to the concerns of respondents in that consultation and wishes to use the information garnered to create a proposed solution that is more palatable to the various stakeholders than its previous proposals.

Next Steps

The Government has stated it would welcome feedback and comments on the Report before 12 March 2009. A Digital Britain Summit, an event open to all interested parties to encourage engagement, inspiration and analysis, is planned for April. This will be followed by more focussed events in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Publication of the Final Digital Britain Report is scheduled to take place in early summer.

Good Intentions

The Interim Digital Britain report sets out a bold and sweeping series of initiatives to propel Britain back into the top-tier of technologically empowered economies. While many will no doubt point at the gulf between good ideas and their suitably funded implementation, the Report shows the Government’s willingness to engage with technology and industry to drive change.