INSIDER VIEW: Make British internet great again
I write this diatribe from the comfort of a first class seat (not paid for by me) on a South Western Railway train from London Waterloo to Southampton Central.
Ironically, I should have published this irreverent rant 20 minutes ago, but the Wifi has been up and down like a fiddler’s elbow, leading to endless waits for pages to load.
We have to do better as a country, surely?
I’m all for a digital detox, but that should be the choice of the individual. If you don’t want to browse the internet or work on the train, then you can put your phone in your pocket or switch on aeroplane mode.
But if you need to work, the option is often taken away from you because of the dreadful internet signal available (or unavailable) across swathes of the country.
Today it’s cost me about 45 minutes. What about people that commute long distances every day? Productivity would surely go through the roof — something that the UK is desperately in need of right now.
And it’s not just about work. I don’t speak for everyone, but I work long hours and often have jam-packed evenings. So my time on the train is often the only chance I get to decompress. I use my time to catch up on sport or news, watch a show, listen to a podcast, or browse websites of interest.
And this is where watches come in.
The industry is blessed to have some of the widest range of passionate content creators of any market segment out there. Influencers, journalists, YouTubers — it’s a veritable smorgasbord of choice. All of it helps raise the tide and stimulate interest among enthusiasts. It’s a genuinely needle-moving part of the eco-system.
With sporadic internet access, fewer articles will be read, fewer videos watched, and fewer TikTok pages scrolled. Not to mention less time spent on a watch brand’s or retailer’s website. The tide lowers.
It doesn’t have to be like this. I’ve been in Ubers in rural Italian countryside and had a lightning fast connection. How can it be so much worse when travelling through Wimbledon or Basingstoke?
I implore our soon-to-be-coronated Prime Minister in-waiting Andy Burnham: make British internet speeds great again.
