Forum Brief: Internet use

The growth in internet use has slowed, according to research by Oftel.

The telecoms watchdog found that demand has levelled off now that half the population is online.

Departmental Response

Responding to the comments of ePolitix Forum members, a spokeswoman for the Office of the e-Envoy told ePolitix.com: "The Oftel figures relate to Internet access at home, however it is not only about access to the Internet at home, UK online has established a network of over 6000 centres which offer free or low cost Internet access"

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gerald Imison, ATL's joint acting general secretary, told ePolitix.com: "ATL believes that the internet is an important tool which enables today's learners to have access to the educational opportunities available on the internet.

"The internet must be used in a way that 'sets the balance right', between protecting young people from risk while empowering them to use the internet effectively, productively and creatively."

"ATL has published its own guidance, 'Your safety net: exploring the issues of safe learning on the internet', offering advice on how the internet can be used safely and still aid teaching and learning which responds to teacher concerns on the safety of the internet for educational purposes."

Forum Response: Charity Commission

Antony Robbins, head of communications at the Charity Commission, told ePolitix.com: "We have no empirical evidence to back this up but it seems to us at the Charity Commission that the internet continues to be a major growth area for the voluntary sector.

"In line with government targets the Charity Commission is working hard to enable most of its business to be conducted on-line andis investing significantly in its website in order to better meet the needs of its customers.

"For charities, too, the internet is no less important and many UK charities are developing their own websites to help them meet their objectives, communicate with their stakeholders, to raise funds and recruit more staff."

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Green, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "I am disappointed to hear that use of the internet is levelling off. The internet is a very powerful tool for campaigning and for sharing information.

"Many older people gain huge benefits from their use of the internet and this is something to be encouraged."

Forum Response: Royal Agricultural Society

A spokesman for the Royal Agricultural Society told ePolitix.com: "While the growth in use of the internet has slowed down generally, farmers are increasingly using this technology.

"The internet has become a useful tool for farmers to communicate directly with their customers. Farmers now market their food and services such as Bed & Breakfast or outdoor activities online. They also use it to complete many of the numerous forms that the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs require.

"Farmers are using the internet because it saves them time and money. But the vast majority have not yet got access to Broadband. In many rural areas, even those close to towns, telephone and electricity is still supplied by overhead cables and there is no mains gas or sewerage.

"The provision of broadband services encounters the same problem as the other utilities - willing customers are spread over a wide distance and the companies just don't think the infrastructure investment is worthwhile. Unfortunately this makes living and working and in rural areas more expensive."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Alison McCormack, head of new media at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "With the numbers of UK Internet users levelling off, it's vital to ensure that we don't end up with a generational digital divide. Whilst 'silver surfers' have been the largest growing group of internet users, with a 90 per cent increase since 2001, they are still under-represented.

"There's a huge need to support with training those who missed out on learning computer skills either in the workplace or at school, both at a national and community level. It is also vital to ensure that the web is accessible and usable for all. Many websites are designed by young people without thought given to older generations.

"It is unacceptable that those without perfect vision or motor control should be excluded from much of the web's content."

Forum Response: Universities UK

A spokesman for Universities UK told ePolitix.com: ""The internet is widely used throughout UK higher education by staff and students alike, for example as a tool for research and means of information sharing.

"In addition, UK universities themselves provide a vast quantity of high quality content for the internet, much of which is available to those within and outside academia."

Forum Response: Country Land and Business Association

A spokesman for the Country Land and Business Association told ePolitix.com: "The Country Land and Business Association has been campaigning hard to speed up rollout of affordable broadband technology in rural areas.

"Broadband is a necessary technology that will change peoples' lives and we have been working very hard to help rural areas get access to it.

"The CLAs high profile 'broadband for rural Britain' campaign was launched last July, and received hundreds of emails of support. MPs from all parties are now supporting the CLAs broadband campaign in parliament.

"A recent Commons motion, tabled by Jim Knight MP, now has 100 signatures of support. The demand is out in the rural economy, and we shall continue to lobby."

Forum Response: The Woodland Trust

A spokesman for The Woodland Trust told ePolitix.com: "The internet is a vital tool for keeping people informed and for gathering information. The Woodland Trust has found it extremely useful in raising people's awareness of important issues such as the effects of climate change. We now have over 18,500 recorders signed up to the UK Phenology Network which studies nature's calendar to assess the impact of climate change and 8,00 of these are online.

"It is vital that as many people as possible can access the internet to enable them to make use of the vast amount of information that is online and to allow them to be involved in contributing to the many networks that now exist. Participation is clearly key to the future development of the internet and we hope that action will be taken to ensure that people are not excluded and that the technology becomes accessible to all."

Forum Response: British Retail Consortium

Bill Moyes, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: "In 1999 total online market was predicted to be worth £8.84 billion. The BRC is concerned that that without an adequate electronic infrastructure UK internet sales will not grow to these levels.

"Unless broadband technology is introduced at a price that consumers can afford and the process for opening an account is simplified, there has always been the danger that internet sales will plateau at an unnecessarily low level.

"Whilst the internet does not herald the end of shopping as we know it, it does offer an alternative storefront for purchasing goods and services. It has created a new method of product selection and provided new options for those for whom shopping in a high street environment is difficult, eg. disabled customers or those without a car.

"Retailers can only develop and improve their product offer on the internet if there is the technology and volume of usage to do so. We would like to see an increase in competition among access providers so that consumers can benefit from a high coverage of broadband services available at a reasonable price."

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

Jonathan Cummings, director of e-Business at the IoD, told ePolitix.com: "A recent survey by the IoD showed that a majority of business chiefs cite broadband internet connection as an important business issue, which was very encouraging.

"However, for the government to meet its target of making the UK the 'best environment for e-business', UK business needs more coverage, more competition and more bandwidth options. To achieve this, more government support is needed."

Forum Response: Barclays

A spokesman for Barclays told ePolitix.com: "Barclays continues to see growth in the number of customers using online banking. The Barclays Group is the UK's biggest online bank with 3.5 million customers with around 17 per cent of all retail transactions made by personal customers now being made online."

Forum Response: Countryside Alliance

Richard Burge, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "The news that the take up of internet services has slowed dramatically comes as no surprise to the Countryside Alliance. The government's lack of commitment to providing broadband services in rural areas is surely to blame for this reduction."The UK is at a disadvantage when it comes to the provision of broadband. Despite government promises that broadband is being 'rolled out' across the country, a number of rural areas, representing a significant proportion of the population, are still without access to broadband internet.

"This issue needs to be urgently addressed by the government to reduce the decline in growth of internet use. This will increase the take-up of these services and put rural enterprises on a par with both their urban, and European, counter-parts, and allow rural people access to a far greater range of Internet services."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

A spokesman for PAT told ePolitix.com: "Reports from Becta - the government's lead agency in ICT in education - and the National Grid for Learning indicate otherwise; internet use in schools is increasing."

Forum Response: Virgin Trains

A spokesman for Virgin Trains told ePolitix.com: "We find that the internet is very popular with our customers. Our website is very well used and has proved very effective."

Forum Response: Federation of Small Businesses

A spokesman for the FSB told ePolitix.com: "It doesn't surprise me in the least that internet use is stagnating. For small businesses there is a long way to go. For example, in the north east just two per cent of small businesses are using BT's broadband service.

"There needs to be a better marketing plan to get the message across because once a small business takes up broadband, they are normally happy with it and stick with it."

Forum Response: British Airways

A spokesman for British Airways told ePolitix.com: "The use of the internet is delivering significant cost savings to British Airways and every month we are seeing more people booking their tickets online than the previous month.

"People are also using the internet more and more to check their bookings, check in prior to arriving at the airport, choose seats, and add up their reward points as members of our Executive Club.

"We expect this trend to continue as our customers become more at home with the benefits that the Internet can bring in managing their travel requirements."

Forum Response: First Group

A spokesman for First Group told ePolitix.com: "First has found the internet to be a very effective way for our customers to contact us. It has proved to be particularly useful for customers wishing to renew season tickets and to sort out long distance journeys."

Forum Response: Business Services Association

Norman Rose, director general of the Business Services Association, told ePolitix.com: "The findings of the Oftel report suggesting that growth in home internet use is slowing dramatically are likely to be reflected to some extent in the business world. While business is now firmly committed to the use of electronic communications, most businesses are now on line and we are unlikely to see an explosion in use over the next few years.

"The main concern of business is that the internet backbone is proving inadequate to deal with the necessary volume of traffic with the speed and reliability required. Equally, many companies, both large and small, have failed to install adequate systems and safeguards to receive any but the most basic of e-mail messages.

"Until these problems are addressed, we are unlikely to see any significant increase in the level of business internet use."

Forum Response: The Disabilities Trust

A spokesman for The Disabilities Trust told ePolitix.com: "Today's report on internet usage in the UK makes for interesting reading.

"While it is clear that internet usage has grown considerably in recent years, perhaps it is only to be expected that there will be a period of retrenchment especially as people adapt to new technologies like broadband.

"While many people in Britain see the internet and email as an increasingly routine form of communication, it is still regarded as an optional extra by many. However for one group in our society it is anything but. People with disabilities often rely on the web and email to access key services, maintain social networks and reach the outside world.

"Therefore while the government is right to seek to widen online access to those groups who have been underrepresented in terms of internet usage in the past, it is crucial not to ignore or neglect the needs of the disabled community especially as there continue to be many real barriers both physical and with regard to people's attitudes, that prevent people with disabilities playing their full part in our society."

Forum Response: Norwich Union

A spokeswoman for Norwich Union told ePolitix.com: "Sales from our website are almost double on what they were this time last year. So from our perspective, we have seen increased use of the internet."

Forum Response: Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

Robin Hutchinson, head of communications at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, said: "Recent reports of a slow-down in the number of new internet users is hardly a surprise, particularly for organisations working with disabled people. Despite the requirement for companies to make their information accessible to people with disabilities, the accessibility of many websites is extremely poor.

"Whereas new technology has the potential to support many disabled people with their communications needs, that potential is, in many cases, just not being realised and the incentive for new disabled internet users is minimal. This is particularly disappointing at a time when the Communications Bill is going through parliament, offering the opportunity to address this issue in a practical way.

"And, whilst the costs of internet use are dropping all the time, people on low incomes - and this includes many disabled people - will still find it hard to find the extra cash to pay broadband rates or increased phone bills.

"Until more effort is put into ensuring that the internet is accessible to all, in terms of both technology and pricing, the current slowdown is likely to become a standstill."

Forum Response: London Electricity

A spokesman for London Electricity told ePolitix.com: "A few years ago we launched Virgin Home Energy, which was intended to be a service available just to internet customers. However, within six months it became clear that such a service was not proving popular with our customers. They wanted to deal with their energy supplies over the phone, or at least have that option available."