Why Digital Connectivity Matters for Councils

Why Care About Digital Connectivity?

Every council has a responsibility to improve community wellbeing & quality of life for residents. There is one ultimate prerequisite for achieving this goal - digital connectivity.

After all, the connectivity offered by telecommunications providers now underpins virtually every aspect of modern life. People’s health, work productivity, leisure experiences & relationships are now all dependent upon their access to dependable digital connections.

Read on to explore how people, businesses, councils & even our democracy benefit from digital connectivity.

What is Digital Connectivity?

Digital connectivity is an all-encompassing term, describing a way of connecting us to the internet or other people.

This connection is typically offered through three channels:

• Fixed broadband: Internet is delivered to a router in a set location through copper or fibre optic cabling. You can then connect your devices through Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable.
• Mobile broadband: Internet is delivered via wireless mobile networks (e.g. 4G & 5G), allowing you to stay connected while moving.
• Satellite broadband: Low earth orbit satellites can now be used to offer internet from space. This offering is beneficial for poorly connected rural areas - although it will likely double your standard network costs!

How Does Connectivity Benefit Businesses?

Regardless of the method of delivery, businesses need to stay connected to survive.

More than 94% of small business owners now rate a reliable fixed broadband connection as a critical asset to the success of their business. Over 81% also said that a reliable wireless mobile connection was essential for their employees to perform tasks remotely.

Payment benefits

This feedback isn’t surprising, with 83% of consumers now paying businesses for goods & services through digital methods like contactless.

Service delivery benefits

Connectivity is also crucial for service delivery use cases across various industries.

These use cases can be as simple as a small retailer needing to answer customer questions on social media. In contrast, they can be as complicated as a logistics firm wishing to track the fuel efficiency of its drivers’ journeys.

An average business can see a rise of 3.8% in turnover per worker when connectivity allows them to carry out the service delivery they need for customers.

Not everyone benefits

Conversely, businesses that remain disconnected lose competitive advantage. Over 26% of companies in the UK state that they lose business due to being unable to take payments or contact customers.

Unfortunately, the disadvantages of poor connectivity have disproportionately affected rural businesses for decades, as their access to modern telecoms infrastructure tends to lag behind urban areas. Around 39% of small businesses in rural areas don’t have Wi-Fi speeds that meet their current needs. 57% of rural firms also stated that they experience unreliable call quality.

As a result, network operators & rural councils still have work to do to create conditions conducive to unleashing the full potential of their local businesses.

How Does Connectivity Benefit People?

Digital connectivity also raises the quality of life for UK residents.

Community benefits

Instantaneous social media messaging helps people stay in touch, even as they drift apart geographically.

Leisure benefits

Streaming platforms allow people to access a global range of movies, TV shows & music. Travel platforms & booking websites also help organise & enhance holidays for tourists.

Educational benefits

Search engines empower people to learn new skills by giving them access to the most extensive library that has ever existed - the internet.

Work-life balance benefits

Video calling & cloud-based collaborative platforms have also revolutionised people’s work-life balance by allowing work from home in knowledge industries. At Streetwave, for example, these platforms have allowed our staff to work from home three days a week. This change has empowered our employees to save an average of 3 hours in commuting & £45 in fuel costs per week.

Environmental benefits

Working from home has also helped our employees meet our environmental goals, with this removal of travel set to cut out over 8,606kg of CO2 emissions this year. When these benefits spread across society, they make a huge difference.

Job benefits

Finally, residents also benefit from the job creation driven by the telecommunications sector. While the industry is responsible for 220,000 jobs & accounts for 5% of GDP in the UK, it also indirectly creates jobs in other sectors.

Councils that participate in 5G & full-fibre rollout are set to see up to a 1.7% rise in job creation through productivity increases. With 32.5 million people in the UK workforce in 2022, this could see over 500,000 new jobs created across the country, helping reduce UK poverty.

How Does Connectivity Benefit Councils?

Economic benefits

Councils are also set to benefit from the connectivity improvements from 5G & full-fibre, which will add £17 billion to UK output by 2024.

These improvements are set to facilitate a 3.2% rise in business numbers in councils by lowering barriers to entry for start-ups & attracting digitally dependent businesses. When coupled with the 1.7% rise in jobs these technologies will bring, an average council may see 1,650 new jobs & 630 new businesses created within its borders.

These changes will generate an increase in both business rates & council tax for local authorities.

Community cohesion benefits

The benefits to society of digital connectivity will also help meet council objectives.

Increases in economic activity are proven to help lower antisocial behaviour & crime. Connectivity can also drive unquantifiable benefits such as reduced levels of social isolation in the elderly, who can access a more comprehensive communal network from home.

Service delivery benefits

Finally, connectivity improvements can improve council service delivery.

How Does Internet Access Benefit Democracy?

Internet access is now necessary for living a decent life. This doesn’t just mean putting bread on the table. It also means controlling your political destiny so that you can shape your life & hold authorities to account.

The internet has magnified people’s ability to exercise political rights. We can now express ideas to millions of people, join forces with communities without ever having to meet and access new political information instantly. When people remain digitally disconnected in the 21st century, it leaves them politically disenfranchised & voiceless.

The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights supports this view. It upholds fundamental human rights such as free speech, freedom of association and free access to information - rights that digital connectivity is now central to exercising.

How Will Future Industries Depend Upon Connectivity?

Digital connectivity is also vital in continuing to lay the foundations for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).

What is Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is the fusion of various technologies, from artificial intelligence to advanced robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT). This trend is blurring the lines between the physical, digital & biological worlds.

Information silos are being broken down between companies, industries & countries. Instead, increased data collection & sharing will allow enterprises to deploy autonomous decision-making to drive process improvements.

While Industry 3.0 saw the introduction of hardware systems (such as computers & telecoms networks) to control information systems, Industry 4.0 sees the reversal of this, with information systems managing hardware systems.

What are the benefits of Industry 4.0?

The possibilities of this change are incredibly vast & constantly developing across industries. Many projects are already being implemented.

Farmers in South Korea used ground sensor infrastructure with KPMG to monitor the fertiliser-to-soil ratio of their crops in real time. When the sensors found the balance off, their automated system used robots to rectify the imbalance immediately. This optimisation caused a 30% increase in base crop yield.

Fleet management companies are also pairing external data sets (such as traffic information) with machine learning algorithms. These systems automatically use the data to optimise routes for their drivers in real time, avoiding accidents & traffic, saving fuel & reducing unnecessary transit time.

These are just two examples out of thousands of use cases that help demonstrate the relationship between artificial intelligence, data sharing, people & robotics in Industry 4.0.

Most analysts believe that businesses adapting to Industry 4.0 will be able to deliver their offerings more cheaply, quickly & at a better quality.

Why is digital connectivity relevant?

The successful adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies rests on the foundation of high-capacity, high-speed & low-latency digital networks.

Without these assets, Machine to Machine (M2M) & Machine to People (M2P) communication is limited.

As a result, businesses with connectivity will be able to realise the benefits of Industry 4.0 & those without won’t.

Can Everyone Get Digital Connectivity?

Quick answer - no.

Despite the benefits digital connectivity brings across society, a sizable minority of the UK continues to live & work in coverage not-spots.

Ofcom estimates that 123,000 homes in the UK still don’t have access to a decent broadband connection faster than 10 Mbit/s. Around 10% of the population is also unable to get a consistently reliable connection from their mobile network provider.

Furthermore, Wales, Northern Ireland & Scotland are all significantly less connected than England in terms of both fixed and mobile infrastructure & speeds.

How Can We Improve Digital Connectivity?

At Streetwave, we are on a mission to close this digital divide & unleash the benefits of superfast digital connectivity across the UK.

Streetwave’s mapping solution empowers councils to visualise and understand mobile coverage consistently over time. When the performance of a mobile network changes, Streetwave’s data updates, keeping your local authority up to speed with mobile network changes at street level.

We support you by removing the complexity of understanding mobile network architecture and visualising what a user can do on a network at every address in your council in an easy-to-understand map.

These analytics allow you to understand service availability, such as:

• Can I make a phone call?
• Can I browse the web?
• Can I perform HD video streaming?

Do you share the same mission as us? Find out more about how Streetwave works with local government, or get in touch to organise a discovery call.