This letter appeared in today’s Guardian:
What needs to be spelled out to the politicians looking to consult people about digital ID is that you cannot have a universal digital anything until you have universal phone coverage (UK digital ID scheme to have limited use before next general election, minister says, 10 March). When the old copper phone lines are switched off, we will be cut off because no provider will invest in our area, and this is not untypical of large areas of Devon.
That means that any digital ID accessed by phone will not be available to us unless we go and park in a layby every day where we can get signal. Does Darren Jones, the prime minister’s chief secretary, even understand this point? We are not refuseniks. We just live near a hill, and so we won’t be able to do our car tax, get our medical records or anything else as things stand.
This is not a lifestyle choice either because we had a properly functioning analog TV signal as well as a landline when we moved here. We can’t give out our mobile number to anybody important because we know that the device will let us down, and we are paying the same as everyone else – have been for years.
Teresa Rodrigues
Crediton, Devon
This is a good argument against digital ID in itself and is also likely to work well in the public sphere. I welcome any blow against digital ID, and I sympathise with Ms Rodrigues, but I must acknowledge that there is a problem for libertarians here.
As the letter says, the UK’s old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) landline phone network is in the process of being replaced. This link takes you to the government guidance page on “Moving landlines to digital technologies”. The government and the phone companies present this transition to “Digital Voice” as being un upgrade for which we should be grateful. It is not an upgrade for me and I am not grateful. Compared to some, I am not badly affected, but I have lost the convenient ability to dial six digits instead of eleven for a local number, and, more worryingly, Digital Effing Voice doesn’t work when there is a power cut, which we have fairly often. For those who live in rural areas, such as the writer of the above letter, it will be much worse. A friend of mine lives in Scotland, has very poor mobile signal at the best of times, and regularly experiences days-long power cuts due to snow. That’ll be fun when the landline doesn’t work. Next year’s papers will be full of stories about old people in isolated houses who died because they could not call for help in an emergency. This change is not being done for the benefit of the customers. It is being done because the “new digital technologies using the internet such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Digital Voice or All-IP telephony” cost less to run than the old technologies.
What to do? If I was a socialist or a big-state Conservative, I would immediately say that the old copper phone lines must be maintained despite the expense in order to protect the vulnerable and to keep the system working in the face of attack or disaster. As a minarchist, I might be able to say the same, but given that the actual socialists in power and the big-state Conservatives who preceded them have not taken that route, when I have no doubt that they would have been happy to trumpet that they were doing so, I would guess that the extra expense of maintaining the old system must be insupportable.
Or am I wrong?
“This change is not being done for the benefit of the customers. It is being done because the “new digital technologies using the internet such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Digital Voice or All-IP telephony” cost less to run than the old technologies.”
And they need the copper for HS2.
I have a fibre/digital telephone line and recently encountered one of its features.
Using the fibre/digital landline to call my bank, part way through the conversation the handset started beeping, and cut off the call. It then went into a software update mode for several minutes.
I had to re-call my bank using my mobile.
The irony is that having recently changed my BT account, I’d retained the digital voice bit, because I don’t like using my “smart” phone for making long phone calls, the “landline” handset being much easier to hold against my ear for long periods.
Why is it that most modern tech “advances” are anything but?
In the good old days (i.e., not very long ago), when we suffered a (not infrequent) power failure I would lift the phone, call the power company and find out how long we would be out. On at least one occasion I called to report that everything in the house was beeping frantically and according to my multimeter, whose probes I had shoved into a wall socket, we were getting 72 volts. The power rep’ replied in a businesslike tone “Okay, partial power at your address” which quite baffled me; I had no idea that was even possible, much less that the power industry would have a common buzzword for it.
Last time the power went out I lifted the phone to call the power company, and got nothing at all – no dial-tone, no static. Ah yes, the wonders of VOIP – the old days of the phone company having its own landlines and battery backups are gone. Now when the power is out, the servers are down and the phone is out too. How nice…
If replacing the copper network makes commercial sense then why is the state involved?
The two concerns you express (and the lady in the original letter expressed) have alternative solutions. The signal problem can readily be solved with satellite phones, in fact Starlink is rolling out a direct to phone connection right now and has millions of customers without any actual changes to your existing cell phone. As to power outages: I think there are two things here, one is the state’s intervention making competition hard, and second if you live in a place where power outages are common it seems incumbent on the consumer to provide themselves with some sort of back up supply. That used to be a lot of work, today it is a matter of adding something like a Tesla Powerwall to your house. Or, alternatively you can buy a UPS power supply for $100 and leave that plugged in and only use the power in it for emergency services like phone. Heck if the primary concern is the phone you can get a power brick for $20 that’ll keep your phone alive for two weeks.
Patrick, there *might* be a justification for state involvement on grounds of avoiding catastrophe (e.g. an enemy attack or solar flare that took out the internet) that would satisfy all but very pure libertarians.
But in practice, the reason the state is involved is that it is involved in everything nowadays and a decreasing number of people can imagine that any other way of operating exists.
In a post that I cannot immediately find, I once argued against the state’s manic tendency to assume it must ensure that any new service, such as the internet, extends to every last corner of the land – even if the provider is a commercial company. I was not that sympathetic to people living in the country who could not get broadband, for instance. I do feel much more sympathetic to people like the lady who wrote the letter to the Guardian who once had a perfectly satisfactory landline phone service and now look set to lose it.
But if it would cost such a fortune to keep the whole PSTN system going for a small number of people that even the Tories and Labour admit that it is too expensive, then I’m not sure what can be done. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a separable expense.
There is clearly a gap in the market for a new technology that makes individual landlines cheaper. Does such a thing exist?
Fraser Orr, I did not see your comment while I was writing mine. Those are good points.
The Digital ID idea is sold with the usual arguments – “it will stop welfare fraud”, “it will prevent illegal immigrants working” and (of course) “it will stop pedophiles – think of the children!” – in reality the British government could not give a damn about any of these things (especially not stopping the abuse of children), the purpose of the Digital IDs (at least in Britain – perhaps NOT in other countries) is power and control – the standard WEF, UN, agenda.
I live in the sticks. I don’t. I live just outside of Greater Manchester. No mobile signal. It is an utter travesty. At the end of my road there is an Openreach (they are the sort of utter cunts to fuck you up the arse without even the prospect of a reach-around) green box proclaiming “Fibre is Here!”. It is isn’t. So broadband sucks. brsk (now youfibre) wanted to fibre me. I wanted to let them. But there are issues. Mainly Openreach-not-around refusing to even shit or get off the pot. It is a terrible state of affairs. The neighbours are no help. Mainly biddies and codgers who think getting an email from the grand-daughter in NZ at Christmas is a miracle but I’m a web-designer and my wife is a translator (which is all done online these days).
But wait. It get’s worse. Two-step verification. I can’t even get an SMS. And the codes are time-limited. I can just about get an SMS (sometimes) if I run down the road like Usain Bolt waving my phone in the air. This is an utter Emma Freud. The only positive is I don’t look like a deranged twat because everyone round here has to do it. I mean everyone. Whatever handset, whatever network.
The milestone in my village says, “Manchester, 13 Miles”. Manchester is one of the cradles of the industrial revolution. Manchester University has a reasonable claim on building the first computer. Will my phone get more than two bars (and that only if the celestial spheres are aligned)? Will It Fuck. This 2026!
Remember when the Taliban shut-off the internet? There were money-changers interviewed on the Afghan-Pakistan border (AKA “Tribal Areas”) complaining they couldn’t work because their phones didn’t. That was temporary and that was in if not in precisely the arsehole of the Universe it was well within farting distance. I live just outside of England’s second/third city* in an area where a reasonably nice house costs half a million.
You think I’m angry. How about this? Just over a year ago my wife had a stroke. Simultaneously the landline phone died. Perfect storm. I wanted to contact the hospital. Her parents wanted to talk to me. I has having garbled phone-calls on my mobile in the Co-op car park whilst dodging delivery trucks. The Co-op car park is never a “happy place” but… I was too fucking furious to be distraught.
Then I had a cunning plan. Well more of a “Hail Mary” but it worked! Next to the Co-op is a charity shop. They flogged me an old school BS 6312 connection phone for a coupla quid.
And it worked! Thank God and Mr Alexander Graham Bell.
My wife has made a pretty full recovery. I make no apologies for my language here – it is nothing to what I said at the time.
*Yeah, I know Brum… but.
Paul,
I know… So this is gonna stop benefit-scrounging, quasi-legal Pakistanis in Rotherham raping children? Because it’s a government IT system so is guarenteed to work! Like Horizon did for the Post Office? Right, I’m off to pitch my perpetual motion motion to Ed “Windy” Miller.
NickM – yes indeed.
But you seem to be implying that the government wants to stop child rape and so on, but is too incompetent to do so – yes they are incompetent, but they also do-not-care about these things.
Fraser,
“That used to be a lot of work, today it is a matter of adding something like a Tesla Powerwall to your house.”
I live in a listed building in a “conservation area”*. They threatened me with jail over renovating the guttering so do you think I could fit anything like that!
*What this means, in effect, is it is very difficult and expensive to maintain or restore buildings which means a lot are just rotting. Nice buildings not being “conserved” by any sensible standard.
@NickM
I live in a listed building in a “conservation area”*. They threatened me with jail over renovating the guttering so do you think I could fit anything like that!
Sure but if you live in a listed building it is difficult or impossible to put in a new window or change the plants in the front yard never mind anything else. If you make that choice you are making a trade off between convenience and the desire to live there. I can’t imagine choosing to live in a building with deliberately extra laws from petty little local bureaucrats, heck even an HOA is something I couldn’t stomach, but I certainly respect your right to do so. I’m also surprised that they’d block an internal thing like a powerwall, but I’m sure you know the regs.
Nonetheless you can probably solve your cell phone problem with a Starlink (both for internet and for direct to cell phone) and your power problem (for limited use anyway) with a bank of UPS’s. I hope doing so solves some of your problems.
But I do agree that is is a outrage that in a modern society like Britain in suburban Manchester that you can’t get a cell signal. But I think it is just part of the rapidly accelerating decline of that magnificent country, one of the great tragedies of the 21st century. I guess the one upside from the POV of Ofcom is at least with no cell signal you can’t be posting any hate speech….
Fraser,
I appreciate it is my choice to live here and with any decision as to where to live there are inevitable trade-offs. There are upsides to where I live (otherwise I’d move). What annoys me is the downsides are silly things out of not just my control but of others. A lot of the dereliction of buildings is because “change of use” is a nightmare for example. It is the idiotic (I don’t even think it is willful) malice that destroys businesses in my vicinity or means a shut pub can’t be changed into some other business or housing (some round here could be) but just rots. My local bank – a NatWest – has been dormant for years. A corporation that size can’t re-purpose or sell it (and it was a nice building) and that is a corporation, which as a major mortgage lender, ought to know the property game. Yes, I’m personally annoyed. I think I made that clear but I have also seen over the nineteen years I have lived here a once vibrant community being destroyed bit by bit. People here want to do things. They want to renovate and imprrove or try new businesses or whatever but they can’t. That annoys me. What makes me really angry is this is not unique to this area. This is national. My local pub of choice… Well, rising utility bills, rising emplore NI “contributions” were a strain but they were soldiering on but then a 14 grand hike in business rates? It’s a well run business. I know the folks who run it and they know their onions. It’s a nice place for a pie and a pint. The point is if a well run, and cleverly run business can’t work in a nice part of the country then we are screwed. Furthermore there is another issue. The government is already taxing in terms of alcohol duty, VAT and whatnot. If the business rate hike closes businesses then isn’t the government shooting itself in the foot here? They can raise taxes however much they want but even 100% of nothing is nothing. It is madness.
Fraser, I don’t really see why it’s the customer’s responsibility to procure and install/configure various expensive, complicated backups and workarounds to resolve issues caused by the supplier replacing a functional, utterly reliable system with one that has all the issues being discussed. You or I might not be frightened by a UPS, or a Tesla Powerwall, or a Starlink setup, but I can promise you most people would be.
Aside: I keep seeing adverts that say “Power Cut? Call 155!” and I think to myself, if there’s a power cut, guys, you won’t be calling anyone, because your phone now needs, you know, power.
Yeah. My finances aren’t the best. Forced early retirement due to ill health an all, but even I’ve managed to purchase 2 x Schneider Electric Uninterruptible Power Supply 850VA (8 Outlets, Surge Protected, 2 USB Charging Ports) for £250 and 4 x 12volt DC batteries for another £120 which I top up once a month.
When the power goes out (usually during winter storms here in Scotland), I’ve got enough UPS backup power to cleanly shut everything down (or when it hits 5 minutes of power left it does an auto-shutdown). Stops me from frying disks and fragile computer components which I’ve had in the past.
Once that is done, between the cooking/heating from a camp stove in the kitchen (with a CO monitor, naturally) and topping up phones from the batteries, we’ve got enough power and heat to get by for a week as long as we’re not profligate. Probably two weeks on camping gas.
Not ideal, but at least it gives us options.
Swapping out the SIM on my iPhone into a cheap Nokia N100 dumb phone which is charged once a month along with the batteries also means we’ve got a relatively low power cell phone connection for 999 calls if needed.
“The Digital ID idea is sold with the usual arguments – “it will stop welfare fraud”, “it will prevent illegal immigrants working” ”
The principle behind digital ID is to eliminate those things by making them legal. They’ll hand out digital IDs to all and sundry, straight off the boats in fact, and then hey presto! there’s no fraud because they’re all legit……
@Peter MacFarlane
Fraser, I don’t really see why it’s the customer’s responsibility to procure and install/configure various expensive, complicated backups and workarounds to resolve issues caused by the supplier replacing a functional, utterly reliable system with one that has all the issues being discussed.
I live in the boonies, and there are no roads out there, but I had to go to London. So I hopped on my horse to ride down to the big city. Used to be along the post roads every thirty miles, there was a coach inn with stables and hay, but they shut them all down. I mean why would they do that to a functional, utterly reliable system? Sure I could get a 4WD car, but those new technologies are really expensive and hard to understand. Why would they shut down a system that was working so well instead of supporting my old way of doing things?
(This isn’t true, but hopefully illustrative…)
“I live in the boonies, and there are no roads out there, but I had to go to London. So I hopped on my horse to ride down to the big city. Used to be along the post roads every thirty miles, there was a coach inn with stables and hay, but they shut them all down. Sure I could get a 4WD car, but those new technologies are really expensive and hard to understand.”
Crap example. Firstly cars did not replace a network of stagecoaches and their inns. Canals, and then trains did. By the time cars arrived stagecoaches had been dead for 50 years. Secondly no one closed the network of coaching inns down overnight did they? It wasn’t there one day, gone the next. It slowly withered away as people discovered new ways of travelling. It was an organic process lead by voluntary actions by millions of people. It wasn’t imposed on everyone at the stroke of a pen by a bureaucrat at the behest of a large corporation.
Jim,
There’s a big old coaching in just round the corner from me. Still going. Not for the coaching but because it’s an OK food pub. It is interestingly 13 miles from central Manchester (that was the range of horses) and is oddly enough very close to a railway station…
I think Fraser Orr needs to provide an example of where an objectively worse technology (for the user at least) has been forced on the consumer by State/monopoly corporate power, and this turned out to be A Good Thing™
The debate about digital ID is a gaslighting operation. Even if the state does not implement digital ID, it already exists in a panoply of forms both publicly and privately or hybrid models (setting up a bank account using my phone I had to take a photo of my passport and a photo of my face). The real debate we need is what explicit limits on government control are required. For example, I’d favour a complete ban on the government monitoring my purchases, and a constitutional right to make purchases on an anonymous basis. No prizes for guessing what side of that argument the state would be on.
As Fraser points out there are many backup power options now ranging in capacity from the $20 power brick (10s of watt-hours) to my portable, 5000 watt-hour DIY system: 4 each 12V batteries and an “all-in-one” inverter; super easy to build! runs everything in my house except the blower fan on the furnace. You can buy these things for a couple thousand bucks or build one like I did, for about half the cost. See Will Prowse channel/videos on Youtube–and lots of other youtube DIYers. I recently picked up a 300W-hr battery/inverter on sale at Harbor Freight for a couple hundred bucks. Won’t run an appliance (fridge) for long, but lights, charging phones, small things…easy peasy.
@Jim
I think Fraser Orr needs to provide an example of where an objectively worse technology
I think I crossed swords with you on a previous discussion and if my memory is right you made the same mistake then as you are doing now — namely hallucinating that I said something that I didn’t. Are you sure you aren’t an AI?
Just one thing, unsolicited advice if you will. This change from copper to wireless is, relatively speaking a tiny change. The world is about to be turned upside down by new technology, and for you guys in Britain, because of your stupid government Net Zero policy, you are going to get all the downside and little of the upside. So going forward we all need to be extremely flexible and willing to roll with the punches or we are going to get run over.
It is so sad what is happening in Britain. You have capacity to join in the AI/Robotics revolution, there are many very smart tech firms there, and especially so ARM which designs the vast majority of CPUs in the world today. But in the future GDP will be directly proportional to a country’s energy generation capacity. Simply speaking, energy is wealth, much more so than this is already true. So NetZero is kind of like banning those new fangled metals and demanding everyone returns to stone tools — they are so much more environmentally friendly. I do not have much positive to say about the future of Britain, so, at the very least, flexibility, adaptability, embracing change is one of the few tools you’ll be left with in your toolbox. Honestly, if you can, y’all might want to follow PdH’s example and get the hell outa dodge.
” namely hallucinating that I said something that I didn’t.”
Your ‘stagecoaches being replaced by cars’ analogy was deployed to ‘prove’ that replacing an old technology with new is a good idea, even if there’s problems initially for some people. All of which ignored the fact that stagecoaches never replaced cars (as I pointed out, and you’ve ignored), nor was such a change imposed on people, it happened organically (which you’ve also ignored).
So I suggested you come up with another example of how great it is when a perfectly functional technology is forcibly replaced with something objectively worse (which digital voice is, especially for the elderly, those in remote areas and everyone if there’s a power cut). Which you so far haven’t managed to do.
As for AI, you’re obviously obsessed with it. Sad really, because its an obvious waste of trillions of dollars of investment. All done to massage the God complexes of a lot of borderline psychopaths in the US tech industry.
Fraser is right. The answer is satellite communication and reliable power, which means a backup generator if needed.
The state should not be involved. If anything I suspect the state has only delayed these changes. Or the state is preventing suppliers from charging full price. Force doesn’t come into it. There are just better and cheaper technologies so that’s what you’ll get.
As for AI: it’s real. I’m using it every day. I’ll say more about that soon.