5 things about the Internet I never knew

My research fellowship with the Data Poverty Lab has taken me to some weird and wonderful places.

I’ve hung out with network engineers building cabinets in Yorkshire, spoken to exhausted foodbank workers about giving out SIM cards, and chatted with a man with fibromyalgia about how the Internet has changed his life.

I’ve also learned some wild things about the Internet I never knew. Here’s my top 5:

1.????The Internet occasionally crashes. No joke, the whole Internet sometimes starts to fall over. Most of the time we’re sending different amounts of data at different times down cables/mobile spectrum. So the Internet does some clever distribution stuff (can you tell I’m not a techie?) and it all works fine.

But just occasionally, a few things happen at once and big data packets get downloaded at the same time. For example, when the Grand National coincided with a big sports event on the same day a popular online game was released. Too many people downloaded too much data at once. Big Internet Wobble.

It’s like the whole country switched the lights on at the same second – the grid can’t take it. (Fun fact: electricity distribution up used to be affected by the advert breaks in Coronation Street, because so many people switched the kettle on at once).

Don’t worry, the Internet has huge amounts of backhaul (the infrastructure behind the scenes) which means this rarely causes a problem. Now, big network providers have to negotiate timing with sports agencies and game distributors, to prevent clash.

2.????Your device affects how fast your Internet is. It isn’t just your mobile signal, it’s also the antenna in your phone which determines how fast your connection is. So you can stand next to your friend downloading the same thing, but if their phone is better than yours, that video will download faster.

This is what the adverts mean when they say a new phone is ‘5G ready’. It’s not just a marketing ploy, the device has different gubbins in it. This is important, especially because of what’s happening to 3G…

3.????Mobile spectrum is limited. Spectrum is the radio waves that carry signal between mobile phones. Imagine a massive rainbow drawn by a child – thick lines for each colour. Orange is 3G. Yellow is 4G. Green is 5G, etc. Eventually, you run out of rainbow. And that’s true here. In the UK, mobile spectrum is auctioned off by Ofcom to phone companies and they bid for different sections of radio waves.

So, 3G is going to be switched off by phone companies, likely by 2024 in the UK. Other countries have already switched it off, and we need the spectrum, but it means older devices and other devices, like alarms, will need to be upgraded.

It’s also got implications for the future. If we carry on with our data consumption trends, we’re going to be using A SHED TONNE (technical term) of data in 10-20 years’ time. And there might not be enough spectrum to handle it all. That’s ok though, because we’ll have fibre all over the place, and lots of people are figuring out new ways to store data in local data centres. So, I’m told everything will be fine.

4.????You can get low-cost Internet if you claim benefits. In the UK, these are called ‘social tariffs’. These tariffs tend to be around ￡15-20 a month and many of them are 30-day rolling contracts, which is great if you're worried about your finances. There are 8 home broadband social tariffs in the UK and even a mobile one and there's no penalties for switching.

The speeds of social tariffs aren't great, which sucks because the speed of your Internet isn’t really about how lavish your life is. Working from home or studying online might mean you need to make video calls, which are a data hungry activity that require good speeds. Most people haven't heard of social tariffs and only 1.2% of Universal Credit claimants are on them. But they could be step in the right direction to tackling data poverty, and some organisations, like Nous, are helping people switch.

5.????If you’re under 18, you can’t get a monthly Internet contract. In the UK when you turn 16, you can get married, have sex, apply for your own house through the local council, leave school, get a job, get an apprenticeship, pay National Insurance, choose your own GP, get a passport, join the army, buy a pet – but you can’t buy monthly Internet.

As far as I can tell, until you’re 18, you are stuck using Pay As You Go if you need to get Internet to your house and you don’t have a parent or guardian to buy it for you (if I’m wrong, please DM me). This means young people who live independently are paying huge amounts of money to get bad Internet. I'm exploring what this means for their lives and ways we can tackle the problem, among others.

If you have any facts about the Internet you want to share, message me. I can talk 5G mesh networks for days.

Kat Dixon is working on a fellowship with the Data Poverty Lab. All views expressed here are her own.