Seismic change or quiet revolution?

During the early 2000s I had an office space in an MIT building called the “BT Disruptive Laboratory”.?

As is implied by the title, our primary function was to identify innovative technologies that would disrupt the technology marketplace, business functions and the lives of consumers. From our position on the third floor of the Media Lab, we could easily access?all the departments on the MIT campus.?

However, as I interacted with both students and academics every day, one thing became obvious very quickly; the impact of universal access to high-speed communications. No matter where you were on the campus, inside a lecture theatre, in a building or corridor or out on the grass areas, there was always a reliable and speedy connection. ?

Also, as most people had high-speed connections at home as well as on the campus, it was interesting to see that how people worked, collaborated, and lived their lives was changing as they adopted, and adapted to, this new online existence.??

While observing these changes a question kept constantly coming into my mind; “would universal access to high-speed communications have a similar effect on a whole country, and specifically my home country?”?

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The journey to universal high-speed connectivity in the UK.?

Just a couple of years before these observations at MIT, a broadband service had been launched in the UK. But the service was initially limited in speed and coverage due to the use of the existing UK copper network and the impact on how people worked and lived their lives was not significant. However, with the upgrade to “fibre to the cabinet” a few years later both speed and coverage were radically improved, and we started to see some changes in how people worked. But the real breakthrough came in 2019 with fibre to the home launched. This service could provide customers with a significant increase in speed and, importantly, remarkably high reliability. And with this, “trust” in "at home connections" increased.?

(No one could have foreseen the global pandemic and the UK lockdowns in March 2020 and January 2021, but these did force many adults and school children to change how they worked).?

So, here we are in 2024, just five years after the initial roll-out of fibre to the home, and today around 98% of the population can get high-speed broadband and around 68% are able to access full-fibre gigabit services. ?

Although we do not yet have true universal high-speed connectivity, the current UK government?targets (Levelling Up White Paper February 2022) state that gigabit-broadband will be available nationwide by 2030. (Nationwide coverage means “at least 99%” of premises).?

Is the type of user experience I first witnessed 20 years ago on the MIT campus now available in the UK and is it changing how we work and live our lives? ?

The answer is generally a qualified yes, in that it still varies from area to area. ?

However, in a significant percentage of the UK how many of us?work has really changed!?

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But are the changes visible??

If you take your children to school in the morning you will probably notice a couple of things. Firstly, there are a far larger percentage of men at the school gates than you would have seen just a few years ago and secondly many of the parents will tell you they are rushing off home to their first online meeting of the day.?

These observations are very much supported by the data.?

A recent Office for National Statistics survey showed that among working adults, 16% reported working from home only, and 28% reported both working from home and travelling to work.??

So, around a third of us are spending some time working from home and around a sixth of us work only from home and rarely, if ever, travel to an office!?

One of the things I noticed, twenty years ago, working in and around the MIT campus was that people had come to trust that their connectivity would always be there, pretty much regardless of their location. They “knew” that when they opened their laptop it would connect, and the connection would be fast!?

In the UK today we are entering, in much of our country, a comparable situation.?

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But what about the children and their school experience, has that changed??

Well, during the day, in many schools, this has not changed significantly in the last few years. They will have computer science lessons a couple of times a week where they use the Internet and, in some other subjects, they will use online resources.??

However, it is when they come to complete their homework in the evening that we see how things have started to really change.??

Today, even in the first few years of their education their school will certainly use online resources and as they move to their secondary school a significant percentage of their work at home will be online.?

But, of course, this generation has grown up using computers and the Internet. They play games and meet with their friends online in the evening, even when they have seen them during the day. ?

Studies have shown that our children?are the most “computer literate” and “tech-savvy” generation in our UK history.?

They are comfortable using “computers’ and see nothing particularly special about interacting online with other people or with media.?

Those currently in education view our world through the lens of technology. They have access to most of the knowledge and information that has ever been created and with the advent of artificial intelligence they have a guide that will respond to a query in seconds.?

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But there is more to life than work! How has the high-speed connection changed our leisure time??

High speed broadband has completely changed how we consume "media". The ubiquitous internet connected TV has enabled many streaming services to grow.?

A recent survey showed that over 19 million households in the UK have access to streaming video services, with many subscribing to more than one.?

And of course, the number of people using free short video services such as YouTube continues to grow in the UK, from 33.4 million in 2017 to 43.9 million as of 2024.?

With this growth and the opportunity for consumer revenue has come better quality video, now generally 4K, and enhanced sound, now often in 5.1 (6 audio channels). With some inexpensive equipment, high quality films, with surround sound, can be enjoyed in our homes.?

But, what about online gaming, I hear you say.?

Even for the younger gamers, playing with their friends online has never been easier. And with high-speed Internet being available in many countries, those children with relatives in other parts of the world can chat to them on a social media app while playing an online game.?

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When I worked on the MIT campus we often talked of the “always on” world that we would experience in the future. A world of instant high-speed connectivity.?

Today there is much talk of “going off grid,” that is finding the time and space to disconnect from the online world. For a decent work life balance this can be a good thing, but it also tells us something, the “always on” world we discussed twenty years ago is very much with us today!?

Is this a seismic change or just a quiet revolution, I leave that to you to consider.?

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The images used in the article.

Aside from the glass outside the BT Disruptive Lab, all images were generated by the Copilot AI system. (The header image is a compilation of Copilot images).?

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