The breaking news is that Commander Ian Gibson RN (Rtd), our excellent Harbour Master, has decided to retire next spring. He has achieved so much in his six years here: but all that is something for another time.
The Harbour Board recently found that planning for new technology is never straightforward. The Harbour introduced a yacht wifi in 2004, using a system that was quite advanced at the time. It would be good to upgrade it and make it free of charge, as customers now expect wifi to be free. But is wifi even necessary? Customers may prefer to connect their tablets or smartphones directly to 3G and do their business that way – indeed, increasingly, seafarers are expecting to look up the state of the tide as they approach the bar.
But nothing is that easy. The South Hams telephone system is virtually optic-fibre free and the copper wire simply can’t take the load. There is no 3G (let alone 4G), because the lines to the mobile phone masts don’t have the necessary capacity.
This means that harbour users have to fall back on the Harbour wifi. A new Harbour wifi system should be faster, carry more data, be affordable and could easily be free. But the reality is that customers using a free system would suddenly increase their usage to well above the current levels; and, limited by copper wire, the wifi can’t go any faster. The result is that, in spite of people’s grumbles, the Harbour has to stay with paid-for, low-tech wifi, restricted more or less only to email.
Looming on the horizon is another excitement. South Hams District Council is about to launch its “Transformation Programme” with the snappy title “T18”. T18 stands for 2018, the date by which almost all of the dealings between SHDC and its residents will be electronic. We will, apparently, be using smartphone apps to get quicker, clearer, more friendly and – crucially – cheaper access to our district council. Technology will allow significant staff reductions so everything will become affordable again.
Your guess is as good as mine about the proportion of South Hams residents who will have ready internet access and/or smartphones with the appropriate apps, have a decent mobile signal and be confident about doing housing, benefit, Council Tax, or rubbish collection business in this way: and whether the telephone network in the area will be able to take it. In the meantime, the Harbour will be staying with its aging wifi.
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