|
Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 2000 I'm observing the peculiar habits of my species THE new international airport at Denver, Colorado is a temple of technology in its structure and services for the travellers passing through. Costing more than $3 billion (£2 billion), the terminal is a masterpiece of architecture resembling some vast, tented city when viewed at a distance. The roof is a white stretched fabric held in position with substantial steel guys. Inside, the booking hall, baggage claim, public areas and facilities are world class. At the moment, I am sitting beside concourse B completing my e-mail and writing this article but, mostly, I am observing the peculiar habits of my species as they travel. It is mid-morning and the place is abuzz with passengers lugging a wild variety of baggage and technology as they move around, stop for refreshment, buy presents and meet family and friends. But the dominant activity is communication - only a few are reading books and papers or relaxing. The woman opposite is typing on her startlingly blue iBook, a man has his eyes fixed on his Palm Pilot, and a young lady behind me is shouting at her mobile to override the hubbub of travellers. Most curious of all are six payphones, back-to-back, in the central thoroughfare with only the middle one on each side data enabled. Further down the concourse are two internet terminals. My flight has been delayed for two hours and I have time to observe a near 100pc occupancy of the internet terminals and less than 10pc use of the pay phones. The exceptions are the two data-enabled pay phones, where lap-top computers are plugged in one after another to upload and download e-mail using the toll-free 1-800 numbers. It might have appeared absurd just five years ago, but now it seems commonplace. A woman has a really expensive lap-top computer precariously balanced on the not-quite-wide-enough shelf beneath the centre data-enabled payphone. Wedging it in place with her knee, she is actively downloading e-mail while talking to someone else on her mobile phone, and sipping coffee between sentences. A queue of people is waiting to hook up, adding to the pressure to communicate fast. After one pay phone upload and download, I decided to resort to my GSM phone at 9.6kbit/s. It then struck me that America is devoid of wireless data communication. In Europe, what I was doing was the norm while in the US it was the exception, made more evident by the degree of interest and comment by fellow travellers - "You can download data on your mobile?" As I traverse the planet, I can only watch in amazement as the network companies fail to grasp the opportunity to provide adequate communication facilities in places where people congregate. Net access is now as important as food, drink, toilets, shoe shines, bookshops and other amenities. In this airport, which is less than 10 years old, the architecture and amenities are good, but communication is woefully lacking. Here I am with a 25Mbit/s wireless LAN (local area network) card in my laptop with no network to communicate with. It would only take the installation of a few very low-cost LAN base stations and all the people around me would be satisfied. The need for efficient physical transport during the industrial revolution gave rise to the demand for telecommunication networks. This prompted more physical movement, and today's demand for more internet connections. This interplay between bits and atoms is set to accelerate and, ultimately, the only limit to trade is the supporting infrastructure. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
Telegraph Group Limited endeavours to ensure that the information is correct but does not accept any liability for error or omission.
Users are permitted to copy some material for their personal use, but may not republish any substantial part of the data either on another website or as part of any commercial service without the prior written permission of Telegraph Group Limited.