Stephen Timms MP

Third Generation Mobile Communications

Your agenda for the next three days demonstrates the range of issues facing mobile telecommunications and the degree to which this technology has now infiltrated every facet of modern life. It is hard to remember that the first mobile phone call in the UK was only made in 1985, some 18 years ago. Yet a recent survey by the Henley Management Centre and Teleconomy found that 46% of 25-34 year-olds could not live without their phone. Some survey respondents even said losing their phone would be akin to suffering a bereavement. If, like me, you just fall outside the scope of the survey, you find yourself thinking, “how did we survive without them?” But there are now some 50 million subscribers in the UK, over 70% of people have a mobile, and it has become one of the most inclusive technologies in society.

People have asked me, we’ve heard a lot of talk about 3G and seen the adverts but what will this new technology bring? How will the average businessman benefit or enjoy 3G technology? What has been the 3G experience?

The launch of 3G in the UK was low-key and it is no real surprise that take-up has been seen by some commentators as slow. It is also fair to say that the service still has problems to overcome. But that was to be expected. It is a new technology. The first network is provided by the new entrant. The services are new. Of course, some aspects of the service suffer when compared with the existing GSM and GPRS networks but these networks have had years to iron out their problems. You expect teething troubles. Indeed, I think, had there not been some problems, commentators would cite this as evidence that 3G was not a big technological step forward. However, compare the launch of 3G with the launch of the first GSM networks and I think you get a far truer picture of how successful a launch 3G has been.

Perhaps I can give a couple of examples from my own experience. As my train pulled out of Liverpool’s Lime Street station recently, I wanted to know the latest news headlines. No problem. I downloaded the ITN midday news bulletin onto my 3G handset and watched it there and then on the train.

I was in Silicon Valley last month to visit some of the numerous start-ups, which have appeared over the past year and a half developing wireless Internet (wi-fi) technology and services. I enjoyed soliciting admiring gasps by playing back to them on my mobile handset the ITN news bulletin and video highlights of the West Ham-Manchester City Premiership match. Although I’m not 100% sure whether the gasps were due to the technology or seeing West Ham actually wining…

One thing is certain that the advances in technology will expand the number and type of services available and mobiles will be seen as even more essential. At this point the more sceptical, invariably, ask, “what services 3G technology will bring and what uses can be made of them?”

If I could accurately predict what services and uses would be in demand in the future, then I would be making a vast amount of money in the private sector! Happy was the man who spotted the potential for ring-tones…

More seriously, the answer is difficult because the range of potential applications is huge. For example, I read last week that junior doctors in Glamorgan are using mobile phones to send picture messages of X-rays to specialist consultants for advice on the best course of treatment. Specialists are not always on hand, so in the past these X-rays had to be sent by courier or telex, both expensive and time consuming. It also meant the Specialist Consultant had to be on hand to receive the papers. Whereas now the specialist can receive the pictures and advise on treatment instantly and from wherever he or she is. Not only does this save time, to the obvious benefit of the patient, but it saves money as well.

Now if you had asked me a couple of years ago to list the possible uses of picture messaging, I am sure I would not have come up with that application. But perhaps two of the main areas into which mobile technology will expand into are e-commerce and e-government.

We want the UK to become a leader in e-business. It is a key aspect of our aim to help achieve prosperity for all. This means helping UK firms improve their productivity and competitiveness. Surveys by bodies such as Cisco Systems and the British Chambers of Commerce have shown that investment in ICT, information and communication technologies, has made an important contribution to output growth in the UK and helped improve labour productivity growth over the last decade. Furthermore some 87% of firms who have adopted e-business solutions to reduce costs and improve efficiency experienced clear benefits.

The UK is doing well at the moment. International benchmarking places us close behind Sweden and the US, the leading nations, and on a par with Germany and Canada. Other measures such as the Economist Intelligence Unit’s measurement of “E-readiness” place us 3rd in the world, level with the US. But we want to do better.

The Government is taking action in four main areas to help ensure we do better.

UK on-line for business aim is to help and advise UK business of the benefits of ICT and how to get the most from ICT. There are over 300 ICT advisors who, to date, have assisted over 100,000 business while the website averages around 49,000 visitors per month. Numbers like that give some idea of UK on-line for business’s success but numbers of hits or meetings are a measure of quantity, not quality. I think a far better indicator is the description by the EIU who said, it is “one of the world’s strongest and most innovative government projects supporting business.”

The UK Broadband Taskforce, launched last November, encourages the most effective use of public and private procurement in broadband solutions in both urban and rural areas. We have just seen the number of UK broadband subscribers pass the two million mark and this number is rising by well over 30,000 a week. We are making good progress towards our target of having the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005, we recently moved from 4th place to 3rd for the G7 competitiveness table, overtaking the USA.

Regulation. We are working to modernise the regulatory, legal and fiscal framework to meet the needs of the e-economy. The creation of the new regulator Ofcom will bring a more strategic overview to the whole sector. It also brings de-regulation to the sector and a commitment, through an specific remit to Ofcom, to a light regulatory touch regime. Ultimately, as the market matures and develops, we want to see competition increasingly take the place of regulation.

Skills. Specifically, ICT skills. We are investing an additional £1.25 billion by 2005/6 in science, technology and engineering to boost the UK’s economic performance and raise levels of innovation and growth. And related to an earlier objective, we have a commitment to provide broadband Internet access for every primary and secondary school in the country by 2006.

3G is part of the enabling technology behind the aim of the UK becoming a leader in e-business. It is “mobile broadband”. It will allow greater access by consumers to the Internet, it will offer more sophisticated services and it will reduce costs to the business user.

For business the last is perhaps the most important, cost reduction impacts on the bottom line. Phoning instructions for the next meeting through to a worker or sales staff away from the desk might cost 60p for a 4-minute phone call. Compare that with the cost of sending instructions via SMS or using one of the “how to get to” functions in 3G, especially when paired with GPS.

In time, 3G technology will allow invoices to be sent on the same day with data downloads direct from the staff in the field to the office, rather than relying on clerks to key in information or download from floppies or via a modem from a hotel room. But even today the 3G technology, now available on the market, can be used with a laptop to allow remote access to your office e-mail, the company intranet, your calendar from anywhere in the UK with 3G coverage and at broadband speed. This has major implications for both e-business applications and for homeworking.

Improved communications is a vital part in ensuring UK businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity. This means adopting e-business best practices and using 3G technology, as a means to achieve this.

Turning now to e-Government. The Government is committed to a radical reform of public services. It is crucial to everything we want to achieve for the country. People have a right to quality education, healthcare, law and order and local authority services. And it is the duty of Government to secure those services. The public sector has to rise to this challenge by providing flexible, responsive, high quality services.

E-Government is a powerful catalyst to bringing about this transformation. The power of new technology gives us the opportunity to redesign services that truly meet people’s needs. This gives us enormous potential for improving the quality and responsiveness of government services and for increasing the efficiency of government itself. But investment in public services is vital if sustained improvements are to be delivered. And the Government is providing that investment. At the e-summit held last November, the Prime Minister announced that £6 billion would be invested in IT over the next three years. We have already made major achievements that we will continue to build on:

• We have radically transformed the provision of information, which is easily and freely available on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  
  
• Good progress continues to be made towards achieving the target of all services on-line by 2005 with 357 (63%) services enabled at the end of 2002.
  
  
• Departments continue to forecast they are on track for the 2005 target.
  
  
• Moving beyond information services, things that can now be done online include submitting self-assessment tax returns online, and booking and paying for a driving theory test. Consumers and small businesses can sue for money owing, get a judgement and then send in the bailiffs all online. Anyone claiming up to £100,000 will be able to issue a claim through the Court Service.
  
  
• The UK now has one of the most advanced e-Government infrastructures in the world. The ukonline portal is the easiest place on the web to find in-depth access to UK Government information and services online. With the Government Gateway, the portal provides a quick and easy means of carrying out transactions with Government via the Internet
  
  
• We are a world leader in developing e-democracy in terms of progress towards e-voting.

But we are not there yet

Government conducts something like 5 billion transactions a year with citizens and businesses, spread over 20 large departments, 480 local authorities and more than 200 agencies. It is confusing enough for those of us who work in government, almost impossible to navigate for those who don’t. Customer focus is not an optional extra, it lies at the core of the reform agenda.

The UK online programme is designed to provide that customer focus organised around people, not institutions. The Government Gateway, which provides the cornerstone of this initiative, is already in place. Registration, enrolment and transaction handling are fully operational. In the future it will be possible for the first time to undertake electronic transactions involving many departments at once, ensuring a truly joined-up service.

So we are now at a turning point for e-government. We could continue along the current incremental route, putting services online in isolation. But this would only provide limited benefits because users do not find what we offer attractive. In July 2000, 28% of UK Internet users were buying things online, 21% were accessing personal financial services and 15% were getting government information and services. By July 2002, purchasing had gone up to 46%, financial services to 30% and government information was virtually unchanged at 16%. To turn this round we need to step back and take a different approach, focused on a much better understanding of how web-based technologies change what is possible, and on much more innovative and integrated ways of meetings people’s needs.

First and foremost, it is essential that the government services people want most are made available electronically as early as possible. To drive this forward we are giving a greater focus to getting key services online. Services such as those related to health, educational services and those provided to business.

Getting services online is vital, but this is not enough. The benefits to citizens, to businesses and to government will come only if those services are used. People will only use e-services if they can see a real benefit in doing so. There are already clear successes we can learn from. For example, NHS Direct Online receives gets half a million views a month. And during 2001/2002, Learndirect reached over 246,000 learners who, between them, took up more than 570,000 courses. It is clear that we must focus on providing quality services that are easier to access and designed with the customers’ needs at their heart.

Where does 3G fit, in all this? Being able to access and interact with e-government on-line is far more convenient for the consumer. It will allow a far more efficient use of resources in the public sector, the earlier example of the sending of X-rays by camera mobiles is just one example. Add to this the mobility that 3G technology brings means people will be able to interact with government services at a time and place that best suits them. Result? A far more effective use of time and resources for all.

E-Government is not just a set of tools for doing the same things better. It is a set of tools for doing different things and better things. It is a way of providing services that more effectively meet the needs of citizens and businesses, and which better implement government policy objectives. The reform and modernisation of public services is at the core of the Government’s programme. E-government is a major catalyst for bringing about that transformation.

I am confident that 3G technology will become one of the key enablers in the transformation of how Government interacts with the public. I am equally confident 3G will become one of the driving forces behind e-business.

Thank you