Speed or service?

I have just read an article in today's Daily Telegraph Connected section about the impact of broadband, where the author quite rightly points out that the net only becomes a compelling proposition when you have broadband available. If you don't believe that, try thinking back to when you were trying to download a video clip down a slow old dial-up connection!

It would appear that the UK is about to undergo the next wave of broadband, with speeds up to 10Mb per second coming soon, and we are apparently one of the leading broadband countries in the world.

I am also reading  "The World is Flat"  by Thomas Friedman, where the author makes the point that the connectivity we now enjoy allows people anywhere to compete (digitally) on an equal footing.

Combine the two articles and I believe you actually come to the conclusion that the world is partially flat, but has some nasty humps and hollows in those countries / districts, where broadband is not available.  Unfortunately not everyone thinks about this and chucks out a service, which is unusable until you have broadband, and then wonders why it doesn't take off.

But for me, the key part of the Telegraph article comes in the last few paragraphs:

"People do not buy broadband on speed alone."

"It's all very well to have a warp speed connection, but if your email goes down, you need to know how long it will take to get fixed, and you want to speak to a real person about it, instead of a computer."

"So while the Internet has come a long way in the past decade, the companies that plug us into it are still in the last century when looking after their punters."

Yes, yes, yes!!!!!!!!!! It's service I want, not just speed.