Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

220Let me give you an example <strong>of</strong> what I mean from one project that forms part <strong>of</strong> the WorkGlobal initiative. At the moment in the Western Isles we have seven legal secretaries working asteleworkers, who provide a digital transcription service over the Internet to barristers and solicitorsin London. This, however, requires very large audio files to be downloaded to the teleworkershome PC on a continual basis throughout the today. In practice, this means that 30 minutes <strong>of</strong>dictation can take 25 minutes to download which creates an extraordinary amount <strong>of</strong> waitingtime and connection costs during peak business hours. The Company who run this service in theWestern Isles now state a preference for employing teleworkers in areas where there is access tohigh speed connectivity. This may pose a threat to the jobs already created in the Western Isles andbe a bar to future expansion.In another instance a potential inward investor has raised concerns at being connected only throughmicrowave systems which could be affected by adverse weather conditions. So what should be ourresponse?How does a remote community like the Western Isles, and there are many such geographicallydisadvantaged communities throughout the <strong>European</strong> Union who will be familiar with our situation,safeguard the jobs it has created and go about creating new ones?I believe one way forward is to build a “Connected Community”. This ‘Community’ would<strong>of</strong>fer high bandwidth communications to small to medium sized enterprises, public agencies andteleworkers, like the seven legal secretaries I referred to earlier. The most remote parts <strong>of</strong> ourIslands must have real connectivity to the global market to allow them to compete.Charles Handy at the first telework conference in Berlin reminded us that: “Change comes fromsmall initiatives that work” 1With this very much in mind the Council is working along with other public sector agencies andprivate sector partners to take ownership <strong>of</strong> a project to investigate the potential for an underseafibre optic cable linking the Western Isles to the Scottish mainland. My vision would be realisedif we could create new organisational structures, which bring major utilities into partnership withlocal community enterprises in order to accelerate universal access to the benefit <strong>of</strong> the wholecommunity Pilot projects are also underway to see how best we can deliver broadband throughsatellite Internet systems to some rurally located enterprises. Quite simply what I am saying is thatwe need investment in a broadband telecommunications infrastructure in all <strong>of</strong> the geographicallydisadvantaged areas <strong>of</strong> the <strong>European</strong> Union.At this point I had better say something on the definition <strong>of</strong> broadband. Douglas Alexander, thee-Government Minister in the UK, gave a very good definition in a recent interview when he said:“While most people today connect to the Internet by “narrowband” over a phone line, broadbandservices <strong>of</strong>fer significantly faster data rates that can also facilitate “always on” connection to theInternet and enable services like video-on-demand. In fact the term broadband is <strong>of</strong>ten used todescribe a very wide set <strong>of</strong> technologies, <strong>of</strong>fering data rates that are orders <strong>of</strong> magnitude apart.” 2Other national politicians in the UK seem to share my enthusiasm for Broadband. Patricia Hewitt,when she spoke at Telework 2000, recognised that it was important for the Government: “to tryto spread Broadband, so that more and more people in the home, but also in telecentres and small