As\u00a0Britain enters the traditional school summer holiday season, hundreds of\u00a0thousands of people will travel to the coast, to our national parks, to beautiful areas of the countryside. After the inevitable traffic chaos will\u00a0come the\u00a0cries from teenagers who can’t get on the Internet. And from one or two adults too.<\/p>\n
This summer, my holidays will be in Swanage, where I can get a decent 3G signal (probably 4G too – I haven’t been down\u00a0for a while) but, outside our towns and cities, the likelihood of getting a mobile\u00a0broadband connection (if indeed\u00a0any broadband connection) is pretty slim. \u00a0I’m not going to get started on\u00a0the rural broadband\/fibre to the home or cabinet discussion but mobile broadband is supposed to fill the gaps.\u00a0Unfortunately\u00a0that’s a long way from reality.<\/p>\n
Last half-term, my family stayed in the South Hams, in Devon. It’s a beautiful part of the country where even A roads are barely\u00a0wide enough for buses and\u00a0small trucks to traverse\u00a0and the pace of life is delightfully laid back. \u00a0Our holiday home didn’t have broadband, but we had three smartphones with us – one on Giffgaff (O2), one on Vodafone, one on EE. None could pick up\u00a0any more than a GPRS signal.<\/p>\n
In the past, it’s been good for me to disconnect from the ‘net on holiday, to switch off from social media, to escape from email. This time though,\u00a0I\u00a0noticed a change in the way that tourist attractions are marketed. The leaflets and pamphlets no longer provide\u00a0all the information you need to book a trip and access to a website is assumed. After all, this is 2015 not 1975. Whilst planning a circular tour from Dartmouth by boat to Totnes, bus to Paignton and steam train back to\u00a0Kingswear (a short ferry ride from our origin at Dartmouth)<\/a>\u00a0I was directed to use the website to check\u00a0which services to use (as the river is\u00a0tidal and the times can vary accordingly) but I couldn’t use the ‘net – I had no connection.<\/p>\n To find the information I needed, I used\u00a0another function on my\u00a0phone – making a telephone call – whilst for other online requirements\u00a0I drove to Dartmouth or Kingsbridge. I even picked up a\u00a04G connection in Kingsbridge,\u00a0downloading my podcasts in seconds – what a contrast just 8 miles (and a 45 minute round\u00a0trip!) makes.<\/p>\n Public houses have always been an important link in rural connectivity (physically, geographically, socially) and\u00a0Wi-Fi is now providing a technological angle to the pub’s role in the community. From my perspective,\u00a0a pint whilst perusing the ‘net is not a bad thing. Both the village pubs in Slapton had Wi-Fi\u00a0(I’ll admit standing outside one of them before opening hours to get on the Internet one day!) and whilst visiting Hope Cove I was borrowed pub Wi-Fi to tweet to Joe Baguley, who I knew visits often (by chance, he was there too!).<\/p>\n Indeed, it was a tweet from Joe, spotted when I got home, that\u00a0inspired me to write this post:<\/p>\n I take my kids on history trips. We go to Devon where the broadband is 100x slower than it is at home in Marlow…<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Baguley (@JoeBaguley) June 11, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nA new communications role for the village pub<\/h3>\n
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