It feels like the end of a journey, one that has lasted nigh on three years. It feels like we’ve been working to get meaningful broadband across the County forever. For the people who need it, the 170,000 on the wrong side of this digital divide, I’m sure it feels the same. And in many ways it is the end of the journey but the beginning of a new one. It is the turning of a page, the start of a new chapter.
Yesterday was the launch of the first Digital Durham cabinet, bringing superfast broadband to a small number of businesses and households in the centre of Durham City. It was a momentous occasion for the programme. Finally we could pluck the fruits of our labour. Our deployment plan had started and over the next couple of years hundreds more cabinets will go live.
We celebrated with an official launch. The press were there to witness the great reveal. The band played some Christmas carols while the ribbon was cut and the photographs were taken. Hands were shaken and backs were quite rightly slapped. It was a great day and one to remember.
But today we start a new job, the one we really set out to do all that time ago. The Digital Durham programme has never been about broadband infrastructure but rather about what access to better digital can do. It is about enabling the people of the County to be competitive in the global market in which we find ourselves. It is about better educational attainment, better employment opportunities and better access to services. It is about making the most of the opportunity that broadband will offer. Our aim has always been to have access to superfast broadband for every single business, home and community across the county and today was a step along the way to achieving this.
We still have a long way to go but I will savour, however briefly, our achievements so far and look forward to the challenges ahead. After all it’s not every day that I get to jump out of a present in the middle of Durham.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 