Residents
How could faster broadband benefit me and my family?
Having access to fast broadband allows individuals and families to use opportunities that aren't otherwise possible.
If your home is in a "not-spot" or "slow-spot" for broadband, we've suggested some ways below that faster broadband may benefit you.
To gain these benefits, you may wish to become involved in a community campaign for better broadband in your area.
Register your interest and complete the short form| - give us a couple minutes of your time and please do encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same!
General benefits
A good broadband connection to your home means there's greater capacity to send and receive data. You can receive and send far more information to your computer in the same period of time.
This allows you to access the Internet, browse the web more effectively, download files faster and send and receive emails quicker.
Advanced, faster broadband offers even greater speeds and more possibilities.
Other options, which we discuss in this paper, also become possible too.
- A broadband connection is "always on" - no waiting for dial-up connectivity if you still use this route to the Internet. This means that you are immediately productive without having to wait for connection
- A broadband connection also frees up the telephone line that was previously used to connect to the Internet via dial up.
- As broadband comes at a fixed price, you can budget effectively.
- Many websites are now "media-rich". This means that they don't just have text and limited graphics, but have interactive elements, streaming sound and video and other elements.
They are designed to be used via broadband. - There are many social media websites which allow a real online community to develop - of which you can be a part.
Example include:
Although they do work with slower broadband, a high speed connection enables a much better online experience for their users.
- But - as broadband means you're always connected to the Internet, you will need to make sure that you are safe by having a good firewall system and an anti-virus program in place.
You can find out more about these in other factsheets in this series.
Share your broadband connection.
With a high speed broadband connection, you can easily share connection to the Internet amongst several PCs or other devices in your home.
This would not be practical for a dial up connection, and may be unacceptable slow for a low speed broadband connection.
Many homes now have several PC's, laptops, and other devices (such as Nintendo Wii's, Smart Phones and even e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle) that can access the Internet.
By setting up a simple Wi-Fi (wireless) network in your home, all family members will be able to access the Internet via a range of devices.
This means that employment, education, leisure and entertainment possibilities are open to all the family.
(You may wish, however, to monitor what younger family members are doing - the web does have inappropriate areas and some risks.)
Teleworking / Virtual Working
Broadband, combined with other technologies have all led to the emergence of a new form of working.
This mixture of new technology and patterns of work has become known as Teleworking or Virtual Working.
It typically combines Internet access to the base office and VoIP systems too.
Depending on your job, you might be able to use faster broadband to work from home. This could mean less commuting and dependence on transport links.
If you run your own business, faster broadband may enable you to run this from home. This may allow you to reduce your overheads on premises costs.
Another incentive for the growth for new, virtual working is the increased emphasis on legal rights on work/life balance within jobs.
For example, people with children or other care commitments may be able to use broadband to restructure their working days. This may benefit both them and their employers.
Education
Fast broadband allows access to a broad range of educational material, in a variety of formats, for toddlers to adults.
For example:
- Educational streaming media from the Open University and the BBC - www.open2.net
- Educational material for babies and toddlers from www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
Many universities, colleges and other organisations are also developing more distance learning courses.
www.learndirect.co.uk| also provides access to many courses run by UK bodies.
Finally, school children are often required to undertake independent research as part of their studies - faster broadband makes this much easier.
TV, radio, music and interactive games online
From catching up on missed TV programmes via the BBC i-Player - www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer| or the ITV equivalent - www.itv.com/player|, faster broadband allows a huge range of entertainment possibilities.
If you prefer music, streaming radio channels from around the world cater to all musical tastes: from Estonian classical music from Tallinn to jazz from New Orleans.
You can find these and over 5000 other stations for free, at www.onlineradiostations.com|.
Alternatively, you could construct your own free play list at www.jango.com, or use the (now legal) service at www.napster.com| to browse and play over 10 million tracks for £5 /month.
If you enjoy interactive games via your PC, many allow play with other players worldwide via a good broadband connection.
You can also connect some other devices to the Internet (via a Wi-Fi connection) to your faster broadband.
For example, in addition to being able to access the BBC i-Player, a Nintendo WII games console can also give you access to play some online games worldwide with other players. Other games consoles have similar features too.
Cheap telecoms
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using your broadband Internet connection instead of your (analogue) phone line.
Your voice is broken up by special software into small packets of data, sent through the Internet, and reassembled at the other end. This happens almost instantaneously, with no discernable time lag and at good quality - as good as a landline call.
There are several systems, but probably the most common in consumer use is Skype - www.skype.com
By using this service, and a simple, cheap microphone / earphone headset or a cheap Skype phone, a PC to PC call anywhere in the world is free.
If you want to phone a land line, you can still make significant savings over your ordinary telephone line.
For example, buying Skype credits and calling a landline in Australia would cost less than £1 for an hour! This could substantially reduce call costs to friends and relatives overseas.
Other benefits
Many national and local government and other services are now moving online - it's a much more cost-effective option.
Fast broadband allows individuals and communities to easily access a wide range of services from sites such as www.direct.gov.uk|
This site allows users to find out information on a huge range of topics, from "who is the local neighbourhood policing team" to "how to make my community greener".
Other online commercial services may also be helpful to people and families.
For example, living in a rural area without owning a car may make shopping a problem. Many supermarkets offer online shopping with delivery to your door - easy to access with faster broadband.
Likewise, other services such as online banking make life easier for people in more remote communities.
