IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

In a version of an article that first appeared on Mobile UK's website, Vodafone Network Director Andrea Dona argues that 5G offers great potential in rural areas as well as in towns and cities, and calls for legislators and regulators to adopt a more investment-friendly approach.

As a technology, 5G is often touted as one that will particularly support innovation in busy, urban environments – and indeed it is a technology built to support massive volumes of connections.

Industry's own initiative to bring SMEs in on big government contracts has meanwhile got stuck in the mud, Computer Weekly can reveal.

Daniel Ruiz, Cabinet Office SME advisor, told Computer Weekly large ICT suppliers were still holding up government attempts to reduce their hold over the public purse.

Taking off with a bang - BT, reveals that the public sector is ready to share services with other public sector organisations.

The new technology sits on top of the television and patients make their own checks, such as blood pressure and weight, the results of which they send via broadband to the team at Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust.

Called Telehealth, the technology allows patients with long-term health conditions to be managed and monitored in their own homes, with clinicians able to decide when they need face to attention.

The precedents are not good. The history of e-government is littered with examples of optimistic predictions of savings that were never realised, typically because digital channels failed to reach critical mass, led to higher costs elsewhere in the system, or simply because managers lacked the will to translate efficiency gains into cash savings.

A programme which aims to make services in Scottish cities greener and more efficient has secured £10 million in European funding.

The Scottish Cities Alliance announced the funds as it launched its Smart Cities Scotland brand at an event in Glasgow.

The alliance, a collaboration between Scotland's seven cities and the Scottish Government, aims to use Smart City technology to transform cities into world-leading digital hubs to enable them to become more internationally competitive and boost economic growth.

The Scottish government and the UK Technology Strategy Board are to jointly fund a £10M telehealth project, showing how various stands of technology can be brought together to form the basis of products and services that will make it possible for old and disabled people to live independently in their own homes.

Up to 100,000 people will be able to use their broadband connection to access health services during 2013, according to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Speaking at an Age UK conference, the minister announced the launch of telehealth, in which electronic information and technology are used to help people independently manage their own wellbeing.

The ‘telehealth’ initiative will mean people with long term problems like diabetes and heart disease do not have to go to their local surgery or hospital for routine checks.

Instead, they will be able to take readings of health measures like blood pressure and blood glucose levels themselves at home, log them with doctors and nurses online, and converse with them via the web.

A report from the King's Fund, Transforming the Delivery of Health and Social Care, as of late expressed that the health and social forethought conveyance framework has neglected to keep pace with the requirements of a maturing populace, the altering loads of infection and climbing patient and open desires.

Vodafone explores the trends enabling digital change to be expanded and accelerated across government

The UK boasts one of the world’s most advanced digital governments. In terms of open data for example, the UK is a global leader. And in 2016, the UK was top of the United Nations E-Government survey, which measures e-government effectiveness in delivering basic economic and social services across a range of sectors, including education and health.

UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, believes that governments around the world are facing similar changes - tight budgets, rising expectations and low growth. “So we need a new paradigm for government services - one that delivers better services, focused on user needs, at much lower cost, in a way that supports economic growth.”

Whilst 5G is discussed in the same breath as national security and Theresa May’s decision-making, Iain Shearman discusses using 5G networks to support smart cities

On our increasingly urban planet, technology is transforming the lives of millions of people as smart cities start to become a reality. Over the next 30 years, it is predicted that almost 70% of the world’s population will be living in these cities; this rapidly growing number of new city dwellers will need homes, jobs, healthcare, infrastructure and services.

According to the department, there are over 18.5 million software licences currently held by the government, of which only 12.1m are currently in use.

The statistics, released on Thursday on the Cabinet Office website, also show an almost total lack of licence reuse — only 668 of the 18.5m licences are classified as reusable.

Sadly too much of this is repeating the work of others. Yes networks of practitioners are sharing ideas and best practice. But actual code and functionality is being built in possibly hundreds of similar but slightly different ways across myriad councils.

To ensure the Civil Service can meet the rising expectations of the public, and deliver public services more cheaply and effectively, the Government has embraced a digital-by-default agenda.

At the time, PASC was chiding the government for its slow progress in bringing about the ICT Strategic Implementation Plan, which is intended to complement the Government ICT Strategy published in March 2011. Together, these two plans outline the government’s “longer term programmes of reform to improve Government ICT and deliver greater savings.”

What many observers have missed in the heated debates about the benefits and downsides is that in a modern democracy with the opportunities of modern technology, most of this is inevitable – it is going to happen and it is only the pace of change that is optional. For example, social networking is already impacting democracies around the world. Ubiquitous access to electronic information and electronic communications are bringing together communities of interest and giving individuals and groups of citizens a louder voice to change the minds of politicians, large companies and public service institutions – arguably as much as the ballot box. It has become very hard to hide what goes on in organisations from prying eyes – from phone hacking to transparency in government expenditure.

At the centre of this year's Socitm Spring conference will be the launch of Planting the Flag, a comprehensive, highly collaborative and much-anticipated strategy for ICT-enabled local public services. The launch follows extensive consultation on the draft version of the strategy, known as the Routemap for Local Public Services reform - enabled by ICT.

The report sets out progress made in the 14 months since the strategy's publication, including efforts to end the "oligopoly" of big government suppliers.

Highlights include creating the Government Digital Service in December 2011 and awarding the Public Services Network connectivity framework contract in March this year. Spending controls on ICT contracts have saved £159.6m, the report claims. The report cites recent work to restructure HMRC's ASPIRE ICT services contract as an example of how the government is "working to ensure better value for taxpayers, break up large contracts, and create opportunities for new, smaller companies to enter the market."