BT is quite possibly one of the most loathed and needed companies on the face of the planet at the same time, like a rich Auntie with hairy teeth you have to tolerate, because when they die you stand to inherit half of Mayfair in London.
Joe Kelly first alerted me about ‘delivering the digital’ economy at the Europe #140conf Meet Up earlier this year, as well as being ‘right on current issue’ (unlike Mashable at the time) what motivated me to ask him into my corner of the earth is that I constantly run into people getting all excited about sharing social media or streaming to their iphone without even thinking how it happens.
I am certainly not BT’s biggest fan; however in my experience most of the better informed BT people you meet on the Tech & Business circuit are realistic about the ‘Kafkaesque’ nature of this mammoth, ever evolving and inventing organisation. While it might appear to upset more people than it helps I would begrudgingly argue the opposite is so…
I have come to the conclusion that we are the tech equivalent of the children Jamie Oliver encounters in schools who fail to make the connection between the actual chicken and the nugget on their plate. Every time there is an event, World Cup, Olympics the amount of traffic generated downloads dramatically rises and then settles around that new level until the next event, where it peaks again.
We are in a brave new world of emerging reworked ways of earning our living and practicing our art, while our world might evolve around the gadget stapled to our hand or the large screen on our wall like all industries there has been someone working underground to create the infrastructure to allow us to Skype with our family in Latin America or video call our cousin in Australia.
The average UK consumer by default expects to pay around £30 pcm for their phone and broadband and to be able to control space craft from them using Face book, ask them to pay for bolt ons and they are reluctant. Expecting providers to shoulder the rising cost without a rise in prices as the gap between usage and cost of reinvention and maintenance is getting smaller and smaller so the line needs to be established now.
In other countries digital packages are much higher, in the UK amazingly people will queue on Regent Street throughout the night and pay a premium for the gadget they need but are reluctant to pay a premium for the access to the infrastructure to use the device to the full potential.
What do you think? Please post a comment to keep the debate going!
You can join in more of this topic when Joe joins the Pecha Kucha line up at the July Late Late Breakfast Show in Holborn on Tuesday 20th July at 6pm click here for details. (#LLBS)
