There is a well known saying, 'no pain, no gain' and that will be ringing true in the minds of Milk Link’s 1,600 producers, who are on the brink of reaping just reward for 12 years of loyalty and investment.Digital divide 'costing rural jobs'
THE digital divide between those businesses which have broadband and those without, is costing rural jobs, David Collier, the NFU’s West Midlands regional director has warned.
Mr Collier, who is also chairman of Business Voice WM’s Rural Economy Group has called on regulator Ofcom to step in and has requested a meeting with its chief executive Ed Richards.
He said the longer the digital divide continued the worse it would be for rural communities where local job opportunities would be severely harmed.
Mr Collier has previously been knocked back by Ofcom, but believes recent changes in attitudes at EU level offer another opportunity to press the need for fast broadband links.
The row began in 2008 when Mr Collier warned the situation was holding back the competitiveness of rural businesses and therefore making some rural communities unsustainable as e-commerce was now an everyday part of business life.
The campaign moved to Europe as BVWM chivvied MEPs to take up the fight, and the result was fresh guidelines in the Citizens Rights Directive, which stated ‘connections to the network at a fixed location should be capable of supporting data communications at rates sufficient for access to online services such as those provided via the public internet’.
In his letter Mr Collier has urged Ofcom to build on the change in European legislation.
He said: “It does seem to us that Ofcom now has the authority to ensure that telecoms providers take on board their public service obligations and require that broadband coverage is at last provided in outlying rural areas across the West Midlands region.”
He said one of the alarming features of a failure to do so would be that, even with 90 per cent coverage, the Government’s target for 2017, there would be rural areas ‘at high risk of lacking next generation broadband, including large parts of the West Midlands especially in the western half of the region’.
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 27 September 2011 4:01 pm
I really think people should be thinking twice before putting things all digital. Digital cameras are great but I've also learned that developing film and pictures in a dark room is quite fun. With news ads becoming digital magazines and newspapers could be a thing of the past. People who work in the printing field, who manufacture film, developing supplies, who print newspapers and magazines, could be out of a job and that's not fair!
Not to mention all effects in movies are being made digital. That is something that's completely UNNECESSARY! What also gets on me is that they even make the sets and CHARACTERS completely digital, like in Star Wars. All of great movies in the past were made long before digital effects came along and they're still audience pleasing, today without digital effects. I'm not against digital effects ever being used, I just think that they should only be used when it's completely necessary, when there's no other alternative. Costumes, makeup, models, regular effects(things rigged with explosives, blue screens, ect) work very nicely and in my opinion look more realistic, but movie makers say"Digital is cheaper and quicker." That's true but that's also the problem, digital effects make the movie look it was CHEAPLY made and RUSHED. Some of my favorite movies like "The Wizard of Oz", "Back to the Future", and "Ghostbusters" had NO digital effects and look what successes they've become. It's because they weren't cheaply made. People who design costumes, make up, latex makeup, puppets and sets are losing their jobs because of too much digital being used in the movies. Some SMART movie makers say that regular effects as well as costumes, make up, puppets, latex and makeup are great because making a movie that way, may take longer but there's satisfaction in it. They say it shows hard work and rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty shows that you've got a job well done.
So digital should really be used less because it's costing people their jobs. They should think about it before taking the next step. Remember the question isn't,"Can we take the next step?" the question is,"SHOULD we take the next step?"
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