"The internet is as vital as water and gas" (Gordon Brown, 2009)

In a guest pen piece for the Times, The Prime Minister spoke in favour of rolling out "superfast broadband" because it "must benefit us all, business and consumers alike, in every part of the country". Who would disagree with that? Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the benefits of broadband access.

It is now, as the PM puts it, "as vital as water and gas".

Being an aspiring academic, I must problematise this argument. I would say that the internet is not as vital as water and gas, not just yet anyway, but it WILL BE as vital because services (such as seen in the field of e-health) are migrating to the online environment. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Not in the too distant future, it is bad for your health, wealth and wellbeing not to have broadband at home. Your local services have all but closed, so if you can't do it online you probably face a considerable trek to wherever those services are discharged in a place-bound (old) fashion. There already are services which are delivered online only (not in the public sector though).

You won't know what's going on in your family or circle of friends unless you are part of their online social networks where they post their holiday pictures and their children's first utterings. Your employer, which could be a local authority even, might have forced to you work from home because your former work space is required for hot desking and you can only use it 2.5 days a week. Your colleagues have all opted for individualised patterns of work so you rarely see them for a catch-up, unless you chat to them online of course.

When did I become an internet pessimist? This is an inopportune time for me to adopt such dystopian views - having just upgraded my mobile phone to Nokia N96 which equips me with both 3G and wifi connectivity in the pocket (or handbag, more like).

That having said, I don't have gas or electricity in my handbag but water I do carry with me regularly.