back to article Ofcom outlines accessibility benefits of superfast networks

Superfast broadband networks could improve access to technologies and information for elderly people and people with disabilities, a study carried out for telecoms and media regulator Ofcom has found. High capacity broadband internet access created by so-called next generation networks could make it easier to access enabling …

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  1. xj25vm

    Title

    Absolutely nothing in this report has anything to do with the speed of the broadband/internet connection. All those things can be accomplished today - at least from the point of view of the current generation broadband speed. There are other limiting factors (software implementations, standards etc.). But can't see where broadband speed comes into all this. Just another piece of political/PR/useless twaddle then? Just another report/research/paper that proves whatever the people who commissioned it wanted to prove. Not.

  2. asdf
    Joke

    not fair

    Why should the old and handicap be able to download their pr0n and warez faster than us?

    1. Elmer Phud
      IT Angle

      not just the usual stuff

      Don't forget that much of the support for the old and disabled is about to be hacked away to make sure the fat cats get fatter.

      As the support services are often in the north and north east which are about to be turned back in to economic wasteland there is a need to say to those who are less able to use the net than others

      " Oh, we sent it to your HM.Gov account. What do you mean you can't read/see/use a computer/understand the web/don't have a connection? It's all your fault now fuck off and die, you drain on society"

  3. Mark 65

    Old people

    I can see them just itching for 100 Mbit download speeds. The olds are more than happy to go and make a brew whilst waiting for an email containing pictures or video of the grand kids to download. They simply don't have the same level of impatience as younger people.

  4. Fading
    FAIL

    Has anyone asked the old and disabled?

    Nowhere in this report (desk based and "expert" questioned) has anyone actually questioned the desire for the old and disabled to access the internet. "The benefits are manifold" - like what? Except as another medium for scammers to remove the life savings of the vulnerable who will benefit from a large number of noobs with superfast broadband? Or is this a simple - well we've given them access to the internet we can closedown the community centres and home visits as they won't need them anymore scheme?

    People who want access to the internet have access to the internet (I still remember all the calls I had to field from my mother solving her IT problems - I still hate AOL to this day) those that don't - don't. Are all the report authors ex dot com startups? and haven't they learned anything?

  5. Jacqui

    heating or food

    Most old folks I know (on state or private pensions) are suffering right now.

    Almost all of them have had key meters forced on them by the leccy and gas companies which obviates the need for said companies to go through the convoluted procedures required to

    disconnect a "crumbly" in the dead of winter...

    So, they battle between heating bills and food. Which do they do without this week?

    Quite a few I know dont even have a bank account! Many no longer have a landline.

    I dont think net access is a high priority and even those who have the spare cash dont

    see any value in net access - unless they have relatives in some far off place.

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