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OneWeb has put up another 36 satellites, taking its in-orbit constellation to 146 spacecraft.

The new platforms were lofted by a Soyuz rocket from Russia’s far east.

The additions will enable engineers to further test the company’s promised system for delivering broadband internet connections from space.

OneWeb is now owned principally by the Indian conglomerate Bharti Global and the UK government after they bought the enterprise out of bankruptcy last year.

The new management anticipates offering a commercial service this autumn to northern latitudes – including Britain, Northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Arctic Seas – with a full global roll-out of connectivity in mid-2022.

“We have what we call ‘five to 50’ (degrees latitude). So, that’s five launches we need to do in order to get to this coverage of basically the south coast of the UK to the North Pole,” explained chief executive Neil Masterson.

“By the end of June we will have completed those launches to enable us to be providing our service. But in total this year, we expect to be doing somewhere between eight and 10 launches,” he told BBC News.

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Mr Masterson, formerly the co-chief operating officer at business information provider Thomson Reuters, was brought into OneWeb when it emerged from “Chapter 11” bankruptcy protection in November.

There has been an intense period of hires, with more than 200 employees joining the books since the autumn.

Supply chains have also had to be re-established, allowing OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture with Airbus, to resume full-volume manufacturing at its factory in Florida.

And all this has required extra funding, of course.

OneWeb announced in January it had raised a further $400m from tech investor Softbank and satellite services specialist Hughes Network Systems. But this still leaves OneWeb short of about $1bn to finish the set-up of its first-generation constellation of 648 satellites.

Those spacecraft also need an array of supporting ground stations dotted around the globe.

“We need one more ground station to fully support commercial service in the areas mentioned by the end of this year,” the chief executive said.

“We know where it’s going to be. Covid makes it a little bit more tricky, but I think we feel confident at this stage, we’ll get it done.”

OneWeb says its testing programme is progressing well, and in a demonstration this month for the US Department of Defense claimed its satellites were providing downlink data rates of up to 500 megabits per second with a delay, or latency, in the internet connections as low as 32 milliseconds.

OneWeb’s chief competitor in the internet mega-constellation business is Starlink, which is being set up by the Californian rocket company SpaceX.

Starlink, which has 1,320 satellites in orbit now after another launch on Wednesday (the architecture of its network requires more satellites than OneWeb) has already begun beta testing with high-latitude customers.

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The two projects are, though, following quite different business models.

OneWeb will be working with partner telecommunications companies to deliver its broadband offering, whereas Starlink will be selling a big chunk of its bandwidth direct to the consumer.

Some way behind both OneWeb and Starlink are Lightspeed and Kuiper.

Lightspeed is the broadband mega-constellation being developed by the long-established Canadian satellite communications company Telesat. This system has only just selected a spacecraft manufacturer in the Franco-Italian aerospace company Thales Alenia Space. The first of Lightspeed’s 298 satellites won’t launch for another two years.

Kuiper is a subsidiary of online retailer Amazon. Like Starlink, the Kuiper constellation will comprise several thousand satellites but details of a launch schedule have not been released.

There are tentative proposals in the EU also for a communications mega-constellation.

In the UK, the government’s purchase of a stake in OneWeb has been controversial, especially with an early suggestion that the constellation could be fashioned into some sort replacement for the EU’s Galileo navigation system which Britain no longer has a stake in after Brexit.

It was confirmed this week that OneWeb has answered the Request for Information now being run in government to find solutions to the country’s needs for precise Positioning, Navigation and Timing, or PNT.

But this is likely, certainly in the short term, to take the form of resilience support. In other words, using OneWeb to bolster the signals coming from Galileo and its American counterpart, GPS.

Mr Masterson says his team are thinking about the services they could offer in the future, especially when OneWeb introduces a second generation of spacecraft – the manufacture of which will have a lot more British involvement.

Carissa Christensen, the chief executive of consultancy Bryce Space and Technology, discussed OneWeb on a recent edition of the BBC’s Bottom Line business programme.

She said: “The UK has targeted space as a driver of economic growth. OneWeb is in a very exclusive club with regard to space capabilities and space activities, and so for me there’s some alignment in that decision to become an investor in OneWeb with that vision of space driving a post-Brexit UK economic boom.

“I don’t want to overstate that as saying, ‘clearly that’s going to work’. But it’s taking on an opportunity and it’s a bold decision.”

Criminals and paedophiles are trying to groom and exploit young siblings as part of an emerging trend of online sexual abuse, experts have warned.

The Internet Watch Foundation said victims ranged from 3-16 years, with some groomed to copy adult pornography.

It found 511 examples involving siblings between September and December – roughly one in 30 instances of all “self-generated content” in that time.

Campaigners say livestreaming services need to do more to protect children.

The IWF, which works with police and websites worldwide to take down harmful material, said the Covid-19 pandemic had been a “perfect storm” for the abuse.

Its chief executive, Susie Hargreaves, said there had been:

a greater demand for abusive content
an increase in the amount of time spent online by children
a rise in the use of livestreaming platforms
There was a “common myth” abuse involving siblings was limited to poorer countries – but most of the videos the IWF found featured children in the West, including from the UK, US and across Europe.

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Grooming often begins on social-media and gaming platforms, before offenders encourage children on to video-chat or livestreaming services where the abuse then escalates.

And abuse of siblings typically involves an older child being coerced into abusing their younger brother or sister.

One video, shared online multiple times, involved a brother and sister aged six and three being given instructions by an abuser, the IWF said.

‘Heinous offenders’
Last December, the government set out its proposed Online Harms Bill, designed to ensure companies provide improved safeguarding measures.

It plans to give watchdog Ofcom the power to:

block access to online services that fail to protect users
fine technology companies
The proposals contained the “strongest protections” for children, Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins told BBC News.

“Encouraging siblings to enact sexual abuse demonstrates just how heinous offenders are in this space,” she added.

NSPCC online-safety-policy head Andy Burrows said it could be a “world-leading piece of legislation” but must follow through with its promise to give Ofcom “teeth” to step in and take action.

In the past year, in the race to bring video-chat and livestreaming services to market, some technology companies had prioritised profit over making their platforms safe, the charity said.

And Mr Burrows raised particular concerns over Facebook’s plans to introduce end-to-end encryption – a way of sending information so only the intended receiver can read it – across all of its messenger services.

‘Anti-abuse measures’
Plans to include it in its video-chat service, Rooms, launched in May, would “significantly compromise the ability to detect child abuse”, he said.

The National Crime Agency said the changes would “dramatically reduce [Facebook’s] ability to provide law-enforcement with the evidence they need” to prosecute alleged offenders.

Facebook said the rollout of end-to-end encryption was “a long-term project”, adding: “We are committed to building strong anti-abuse measures into our plans.

“Facebook will continue to lead the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect and respond to abuse.”

For information and support for those affected, visit the BBC’s Action Line.

Supermarkets can sell non-essential items and garden centres can open in Wales from Monday in a further slight easing of Covid lockdown rules.

Shops that have already been open, but had non-essential aisles cordoned off, can now sell anything, but shops that only sell non-essential items will remain closed until 12 April.

Garden centres will open their doors to customers for the first time since lockdown began in December.

Shops must have strict Covid protocols.

They are the latest restrictions to be lifted as Wales’ coronavirus case rate has fallen below 50 per 100,000 people and the national Covid positivity rate is below 5% – both under the lockdown threshold.

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All primary and some secondary school children have returned to the classroom while four people from two different households can now meet outdoors, including in gardens, as the stay-at-home rule was relaxed to a stay local one.

First Minister Mark Drakeford and the Welsh government have also said more industries could be reopened or considered for reopening if Covid cases rates and test positivity rates remained low.

What restrictions could be lifted?
From 27 March, if case rates remain low:

Libraries and self-contained accommodation could reopen, but you can only holiday with people from your own household
Organised children’s activities could restart
Stay local restrictions could be lifted
From 12 April, if case rates remain low:

All shops and remaining close-contact services could resume
On 22 April

Ministers will consider when gyms and outdoor hospitality in Wales can reopen in its lockdown review

After hairdressers reopened for appointments last week, the reopening of non-essential aisles in supermarkets and garden centres welcoming customers is Wales’ latest step towards reopening after being shut for three months.

‘Gardening important for mental health’
Justin Williams is looking forward to opening Fron Goch Garden Centre near Caernarfon and believes services like his can help people’s wellbeing.

“Gardening is important for mental health,” he said.

“It’s important to have an outside or inside space for growing plants or vegetables. It’s something to do with the kids but also something for people of any age to get involved with. It also encourages people to stay home and be safe.”

Garden centre bosses across Wales have been frustrated being shut while centres in England have remained open.

“We were frustrated this hadn’t been recognised in Wales like in England but are happy that’s changing now,” Mr Williams added.

“There’s been a lot of interest in us opening. People have been quite lonely without much support, it will be good to get people out and see guests in the garden.”

What about non-essential retail?
Many non-essential retailers thought they would be allowed to open when hairdressers did on 15 March, but were “frustrated and disappointed” they could not open until English non-essential retailers did on 12 April.

Welsh ministers said the move to allow supermarkets to start selling non-essential items again while other shops remain shut was seen as “the least risky” Covid rules relaxation as supermarkets were already open.

The Welsh Retail Consortium previously said the industry was losing £100m in revenue every week while non-essential shops such as clothes outlets and bookshops were shut.

Chepstow Bookshop in Monmouthshire will not be able to open next week while the supermarket and high street newsagents nearby will be allowed to sell non-essentials items such as books.

“I can understand why the Welsh government has done it,” said Matt Taylor, who has owned the 40-year-old book store for 15 years.

“It’s great we’ve been on a level playing field for so long, although there are a few frustrations.”

Mr Taylor’s shop, which has been shut for six of the past 12 months, offers click and collect and home delivery home but he estimates trade is “two-thirds” of what it was the previous year while “working twice as hard”.

“The thing people seem to miss the most about coming into independent shops like ours is customers not knowing what they want, it’s that browsing experience. And in this pandemic, books have given people a refuge or an escape from it all.”

Monmouthshire has the third-lowest Covid case rate of Wales’ 22 local authorities – behind Ceredigion and Bridgend – and Leeann Davies, who owns Village Treats in Magor, was “gutted” her sweet shop didn’t open at the same time as hairdressers.

“It seems like along with the pubs and restaurants, we’re the only ones not open,” she said.

“Some of these supermarkets are getting record profits as they’ve no competition whereas even when we’re open, we don’t have the amount of customers they do – and we have strict Covid procedures.

“But I understand we’re non-essential and you can’t differentiate between my little shop and a big store in a city centre.”Mr Davies said her her business would not have survived the coronavirus crisis without government support – but does have hope for the future.

“After the first lockdown and, as so many people are working from home, we were the busiest we’d ever been,” she said.

“Communities have really got behind supporting local businesses and if more people continue to work from home after the pandemic, maybe local shops like ours may have a really encouraging futures.”

BT has said it will “build like fury” to roll out full-fibre internet connections after new rules announced by the UK’s telecoms regulator.

Ofcom has decided not to impose price caps on full-fibre connections provided by the firm’s Openreach subsidiary.

This gives the company the certainty it had been looking for ahead of a planned £12bn investment.

However, the decision lays Ofcom open to criticism that is has given a near-monopoly operator a generous deal.

That could mean more expensive internet connections for the public than might have been the case.

Ofcom also froze the price curbs it levels on what Openreach charges internet service providers for its slower copper-based connections.

‘Ramp up’
Openreach lays down and maintains the fibre-optic cables involved as well as operating the associated telephone exchanges, and then sells use of these services to individual internet service providers. They in turn sell access to the public.

The business has said it can now confirm a plan to build fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections to 20 million homes and offices by the mid- to late-2020s.

“Today’s regulation will allow us to ramp up to three million premises per year providing vital next generation connectivity for homes and business right across the UK,” said Openreach’s chief executive Clive Selley.

Ofcom’s chief executive denied its move would harm consumers.

“It’s true we certainly want to make sure that BT can have a fair bet on this investment, but at the core of our approach is that we are trying to get competition into the wholesale network layer, of broadband for the future, really for the first time in quite a new way,” Dame Melanie Dawes told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

“And the reason we believe in competition is we actually think that’s best for the consumer. It gives us all more options to choose from, not just on pricing but also on service quality and reliability.”

Unregulated fees
As part of the measures, Ofcom will effectively freeze the wholesale fees Openreach charges for providing “superfast” data speeds of up to 40 megabits per second, which rely on copper links via fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or older technologies.

The watchdog had previously forced these to fall by about 20% over recent years.

The price Openreach charges for faster and more reliable FTTP connections will remain unregulated.

There is, however, one new restriction.

Openreach will not be allowed to offer geographic discounts on its full-fibre wholesale services. A similar limitation already existed on its provision of “superfast” links.

And Ofcom has said it will review all long-term discount arrangements offered by Openreach to its clients, and will intervene if necessary to prevent the firm from stifling investment by rivals.

It said it believed its approach should mean about 70% of the UK would still end up with a choice of networks.

Virgin Media, CityFibre and Hyperoptic are among alternative providers.

Their ability to profit from building rival networks would have come under pressure if they had been required to match new full-fibre price caps imposed on Openreach.

“Rolling out infrastructure is a costly and time-consuming venture, that comes with a long pay-back on investment,” commented Kester Mann, an analyst at the tech consultancy CCS Insight.

“This is particularly true in less-densely populated areas where the economics may be considerably less appealing.

“As such, Openreach needed certainty that it would be able to make a sufficient return on investment before embarking on the next stages of roll-out.”

Copper switch-off
Openreach will also be allowed to turn off copper-based networks in areas where faster full-fibre internet connections to properties have already been deployed.

This should help reduce its costs by removing the need to maintain two different systems in parallel.

Ofcom said this would also help promote take-up of faster fibre services.

However, it indicated that any such switch off must be done “progressively… over a number of years”.

And it added that customers would be “protected” during the transition to ensure they would continue to have access to the net.

Ofcom had to walk a difficult line with this review.

If it set regulation too tight by capping wholesale prices at a low level, the risk was that BT and its fibre network rivals would be reluctant to invest the billions needed to roll out ultrafast broadband.

If it loosened the reins it would be accused of going soft on BT, sparking anger from the likes of Sky, which use the Openreach network and would have to pass on the higher prices to their retail customers.

By opting to impose no price controls on BT’s fibre product for a decade, Ofcom has chosen the second option, insisting that it is the only way to spark the frenzy of competitive network building needed to move the UK up into the broadband fast lane.

What this review does not do is ensure ultrafast connections reach the 20% of the country where BT and its rivals still don’t believe they can make a commercial return.

The broadband industry is waiting impatiently to hear how the government plans to spend the £1.5bn of public money it has promised by 2025 to spur investment in rural fibre coverage. An announcement on that is expected imminently.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking to strip three Chinese telecom firms of their US operating licenses.

China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and ComNet had failed to explain their links to Beijing, the FCC said.

The US communications watchdog has long argued those links could pose a national security risk.

The move signals that US president Joe Biden is likely continue Donald Trump’s tough approach on Chinese tech firms.

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Expelled from US
The FCC voted unanimously on Wednesday to revoke the licenses of the three companies, a move that could see them expelled from the US market.

The companies were asked in April last year to address concerns over the their links to the Chinese government, which the FCC claimed could leave them vulnerable to its “exploitation, influence, and control”.

But while the companies have tried to address the FCC’s concerns, it has not accepted their explanations.

“The threat to our networks from entities aligned with Communist China is one that we must address head on, and I am pleased that the FCC continues to show the strength and resolve necessary to meet this menace,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a statement.

China Unicom is a unit of one China’s three major telecommunications networks.

Pacific Networks resells international voice and data services to US operators, while its subsidiary ComNet provides a variety of mobile services, including SIM cards and international calling cards.

The FCC granted approvals for the three companies to operate in the US more than a decade ago, when there was less concern in the US about Chinese technology companies.

More scrutiny
Separately, the Commerce Department said it had served subpoenas on multiple Chinese firms which operate in the US, to see if they pose a national security risk.

The move followed a Trump-era executive order, which sought to secure telecommunications and technology supply chain.

The subpoenas will gather information to “allow us to make a determination for possible action that best protects the security of American companies, American workers, and US national security,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

“Beijing has engaged in conduct that blunts our technological edge and threatens our alliances,” she added.

The department did not name any companies.

Space projects are the latest international scientific collaborations to lose funding because of the cut in UK overseas aid.

Ten initiatives that would have used space data to tackle developing-world problems, such as human trafficking and flood vulnerability, have had their support cancelled.

Ministers are dropping the commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on foreign aid.

The result of Covid financial pressure, the move is supposed to be temporary.

But for the affected projects, it has left them scrambling to find alternative financing in an attempt to keep their ideas alive.

The projects all fall under the UK Space Agency’s award-winning International Partnership Programme (IPP).

The IPP has grant-funded 43 projects in 47 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America since its launch in 2016 – and is acknowledged by independent assessment to have had high impact. Annual spend has been about £20m.

But no new collaborations will receive support in 2021/22.

The 10 projects that received initial, or “discovery”, funding last August have been told they won’t now get the cash to move to the “delivery phase”.

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Dr Andrea Berardi, from the Open University, described the decision as “sad”, “embarrassing”, and “frankly baffling” given the relatively small sums involved.

His DETECT team is using satellite radar data to find areas of water that are potential breeding zones for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Drones would investigate these pools of standing water and deliver a safe biocontrol agent.

“I think we would have revolutionised mosquito vector control in hard to reach areas, especially like the Amazon region where basically all other control methods have completely failed,” Dr Berardi told BBC News.

“We made promises to governments in three countries – Guyana, Vietnam and Sri Lanka – that we would be offering the solution to them with UK government support. This is incredibly damaging to the reputation of the UK.”

Earth observation consultant Dr Geoff Smith has been working on the University of Nottingham-led SAtellite SArgassum Monitoring System (SASAMS).

This would use spacecraft imagery to find problematic seaweed invasions along Mexico’s Caribbean coast. Large quantities of sargassum can disrupt the local ecosystem by smothering seagrasses and corals, and the fish that live among them; and will damage tourism because people don’t want to visit blighted beaches.

“SASAMS would allow people to plan better, by seeing the seaweed a few kilometres offshore. They’d know where to put booms out to try to collect it before it reached the beaches. It’s a solution that could be used all around the Caribbean,” Dr Smith explained.

“We’d developed the technology, engaged with stakeholders and were looking forward to seeing the operational phase – and then we got a letter to say it wasn’t going to happen.”

What has puzzled IPP teams is the emphasis put on their type of international engagement in Tuesday’s Integrated Review, which set out new foreign policy objectives for a post-Brexit Britain.

The overseas development assistance (ODA) approach was praised in the document, which led Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, to comment: “There’s a growing gulf between rhetoric and reality in the government support for science. The Integrated Review is full of fantastic and achievable ambitions, but the words are meaningless if they’re not backed up with funding.”

The UK Space Agency disperses the funds it receives from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. A BEIS spokesperson told BBC News: “The UK remains a world-leading aid donor. We will spend more than £10bn this year to address poverty, tackle climate change, fight Covid and improve global health.

“We are working with our delivery partners, including the UK Space Agency, to implement the new settlement for 2021/22 and protect the most effective research programmes.”

Ministers intend to set out their broader R&D plans shortly. They have promised to raise investment significantly, to reach 2.4% of national productivity by 2027.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the decision to cut overseas aid from 0.7% of UK Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.5% will be reversed when the fiscal situation allows. He told MPs the amount spent on aid even after the cut was “extraordinary”.

The UK’s national research funding agency, UKRI, informed scientists last week by letter that there would be a £120m shortfall for the projects it supports through the international aid budget.

UK Space Agency IPP projects already in the delivery phase will receive their expected funding this year.

Google plans to reduce the fees it charges to feature Android apps within its Play store.

From 1 July, it will take a 15% cut from the first $1m (£720,000) in sales each year of the apps and any digital goods and services sold within them, rather than its current 30% commission.

It follows a similar step announced by Apple in November.

Regulators are investigating both of the big tech companies following claims of anti-competitive practices.

The situation for Google is slightly different in that it allows rival app stores to work on its mobile platform, and also makes it easier to install software by other means.

However, the fact that the Play store remains most Android phones’ default option may be judged to give it an unfair advantage.

Games developer Epic is among those to have argued that both Apple and Google charge “exorbitant” fees.

Bigger payouts
In a blog, Google’s vice president of product management defended its charges on the grounds that the company provided marketing tools and other resources to help developers succeed.

But Sameer Samat acknowledged taking developers’ “input into account” over the matter.

The firm said 99% of global Android developers did not earn over $1m a year, so would benefit from a 50% reduction in fees.

Those that do earn more should find the scheme to be more generous than Apple’s, it added.

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Google’s 15% rate will apply to the first $1m of sales a developer makes each year regardless of their total earnings, with the remainder subject to the 30% fee.

By contrast, Apple only offers a 15% rate if a developer’s net sales fall below $1m. As soon as they surpass that limit, all earnings are subject to the higher charge.

Apple issued the latest defence of its own practices on Monday, when it said more than 330,000 jobs in the UK alone were supported by its App Store.It’s a fast-growing industry, key to the infrastructure of the digital economy – and dominated by two giants which control access and prices.

In any other business than mobile apps – say electricity or communications networks – you would expect such a duopoly to be subject to strict regulation.

But until recently Google and Apple have felt free to do what they want.

Now they have had to respond to pressure from developers for a better deal – though it’s doubtful if they’d have acted if regulators, particularly in the EU, had not begun to show an interest.

Google appears to have outbid Apple when it comes to cutting fees for developers. But both companies can easily afford to be more generous.

It’s estimated that mobile app revenues grew by 30% in 2020 – and the tech giants took a healthy slice of that.

Don’t expect the Brussels regulators to step back and say “job done”.

When we think of technology our imagination usually takes us to images of the future. But for some, technology links us to the past – whether for nostalgia or for personal reasons

Following our recent feature on vintage technology, we asked you to share some of your collections with us – and people from around the world responded..

Rob Seaward, North Yorkshire, UK: 1949 Murphy A146 radio
I have a collection of older technology which I have collected throughout my life – including old cameras, calculators, hi-fis and radios. I had been interested in music from an early age, but it was really when my father purchased a Bang and Olufsen music centre that my interest in not only music, but style and function really took off.

To me, a lower middle-class grammar school kid living in Bradford, I suddenly had access to a world of real style and glamour.

My favourite piece must be the Murphy A146 console radio designed by Gordon Russell in 1949.

Its nickname is the “Batwing” because of the shape of the back panel. The sound is rich, slightly warm and typical of valve equipment. In its day, the radio cost the equivalent of an average monthly wage, it was built to last and the original valves are still working today.

However, as it pre-dates FM it is a little limited. I’ve had it restored and as part of the process we had a Bluetooth adapter installed which means I can now play my favourite digital music through this wonder from the 1940s – which really amazes people.

Konrad Hayashi, Atlanta, USA: 1981 AM/FM Panasonic radio

I still listen to my reliable, dual-voltage, AM/FM Panasonic radio that I bought in 1981 when my US Navy ship was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. I often played music in my small stateroom at night in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and elsewhere far from any land signals. It reminds me of places I’ve been and of how it provided a connection, usually through the tapes that would play, with friends that I had been with.

I also realise that while our digital connectivity offers incredible options older analogue devices can still operate, on battery if necessary, in the face of threats by computer viruses or drought-imposed scheduled brownouts such as they have in Peru.

I wouldn’t consider an upgrade any more than I would get rid of a dependable friend because they aren’t wearing the latest fashions.

The creator of the web says coronavirus has highlighted the importance of internet connectivity as a basic right.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee says too many young people do not have internet access and the digital divide has widened during the pandemic.

He called on governments to invest to provide universal broadband by 2030.

“We can’t afford not to do it,” he wrote in his annual letter to mark the anniversary of the world wide web.

‘A lifeline’
Sir Tim first conceived of the web while working at the Cern particle research lab in 1989.

He says over the last 12 months, it “has proven to be a lifeline that allows us to adapt and carry on”.

But, he says, one-third of young people do not have any internet access and many more lack the quality of connection needed to work or learn from home.

In an interview with the BBC, he said that as the web became more powerful, the digital divide between the haves and have-nots had grown wider.

“That’s always been the case,” he says.

“Now working from home, and learning at home, have made it much more clear.”

He says this applies in the UK as well as in developing countries.

“The UK cannot be complacent,” he says.

“A shocking number of kids in the UK don’t have meaningful connectivity.”

The computer scientist is calling for an acceleration of the push to bring fibre broadband and better mobile connections to rural areas.

“It should be a much higher priority of both businesses and government,” he says of his home country.

On Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Digital, Oliver Dowden, said the government was working “tirelessly” with broadband companies to extend access to hyperfast broadband.

“Two years ago, we were about 7% [of premises with] gigabit-capable broadband. We’re now up to about 30%, and I’m confident by the end of the year that we’ll get to 50%.

“I will be prioritising the hardest-to-reach places, and we will be setting out a broadband action plan in about a month or so.”

Misinformation and abuse
Sir Tim’s letter, written with the co-founder of the Web Foundation Rosemary Leith, calls for a global push to connect young people.

It quotes a figure of $428bn (£306bn), which the Alliance for Affordable Internet initiative says would need to be invested by governments and the private sector to achieve this aim by 2030.

But, the letter says, this would deliver huge economic benefits for the developing world and concludes “we cannot afford not to do it”.Sir Tim also expresses concern about misinformation and abuse on the web, particularly that aimed at young women.

But he says the pandemic has offered the opportunity to think again about improving his creation for everyone.

“There’s a very positive energy about people fixing things, and building a better world,” he says.

Dark clouds loom over the pine forest surrounding Hummelsta, a town of 1,000 people that hasn’t had any local shops for a decade.

Since December, a red wooden container, about the size of a mobile home, has offered a lifeline. It’s a mini supermarket that locals can access round-the-clock.

“We haven’t had any shops here during the time we have been here, and getting this now is perfect,” says 31-year-old Emma Lundqvist who moved to Hummelsta with her boyfriend three years ago. “You don’t need to get into the city to buy this small stuff,” she adds, pointing to the packet of bacon she’s popped in for.

There’s a wide assortment of groceries available, from fresh fruit and vegetables to Swedish household staples like frozen meatballs, crisp breads and wafer bars. But there are no staff or checkouts here.

You open the doors using the company’s app, which works in conjunction with BankID, a secure national identification app operated by Sweden’s banks. Then, you can scan barcodes using your smartphone and the bill is automatically charged to a pre-registered bank card.

The store is part of the Lifvs chain, a Stockholm-based start-up that launched in 2018 with the goal of returning stores to remote rural locations where shops had closed down because they’d struggled to stay profitable.

In Asia several companies including Alibaba are testing unstaffed stores in more urban locations. Amazon has also opened supermarkets in US cities and this month in the UK, which use sensors and cameras to work out what you’ve bought, so there’s not even the need for self-scanning.

But Lifvs co-founder Daniel Lundh saw the opportunity in rural locations: “There were food deserts where people had to travel to the next town or city to pick up their groceries and so we definitely saw that there was a need.”

Alongside skipping the need to pay cashiers, the firm also avoids pricey long-term rental leases. And if there’s less footfall than expected in one location, the wooden containers can easily be picked up and tested elsewhere.

Sweden has a tech-savvy population that isn’t known for small-talk, so it’s easy to see why the model has taken off here, despite critics warning that it would make shopping a less sociable experience. And, during the pandemic when people have been encouraged to limit contact with others, its lack of staff has been a major bonus. The chain has opened 20 new shops in rural neighbourhoods since March last year.

“It’s very safe during corona times,” says Alexander Vidlund, 29, who works for a fishing company and regularly stops off to buy his favourite spicy sausage snack. “It’s a good way to keep a further distance from people. And there’s not the same kind of crowding here as in our big cities.”

Since January, all Swedish supermarkets have, by law, had to limit customer numbers to ensure there’s at least 10 square metres available per person. Lifvs’ technology guarantees that only two people are let into the store at any time.

“Customers like to shop in our store because for one, they can be by themselves. They can come in the middle of the night. And the most important thing is it has less touch points,” says Mr Lundh.

Since the company always knows the identity of who’s in the store at any moment, this limits shoplifting. There are 24-hour surveillance cameras too, which alert the store’s manager Domenica Gerlach if there’s a break-in or a stock spillage.

She looks after four stores in the region, usually visiting once a week to clean, stack the shelves and put together click-and-collect orders made online. Lifvs uses artificial intelligence to work out what stock to order for each store, based on the data it collects about locals’ shopping habits. Customers also receive digital coupons and special offers based on their previous purchases.

“If you go on an e-commerce site they track every movement, every click of your mouse… in a sense we are able to track that too but in a physical store,” explains Mr Lundh. “We don’t have to be here to look at the pineapples to know that it’s not selling, or if it’s selling a lot.”That might sound a bit “Big Brother”. But Sweden already has one of the most cashless economies in the world and high levels of trust in businesses and authorities mean most people aren’t worried about sharing this kind of data.

“I don’t really care that much, I’m just buying potatoes, it doesn’t bother me,” says 21-year-old customer Alice Hellqvist, who’s out shopping for her parents.

Jonas Arnberg, managing director of HUI, a major Swedish consultancy that advises the retail industry, warns one challenge with the model is that it might not be accessible to vulnerable groups such as pensioners who aren’t used to this kind of technology. But he says the pandemic has been a major catalyst for increased digital awareness across age groups.

“The consumer has matured a lot in a digital way during the pandemic. We’ve been shopping online, we’ve worked through video calls and now to go into a store using a digital tool like a mobile phone – I think people are okay with that.”

“I think it’s very easy. It’s like two clicks on the phone,” agrees shopper Ms Hellqvist. “My parents are 60, but they don’t have a problem with it.”As remote working and social distancing continue around the world, demand for local convenience stores is expected to remain high. A recent report for global firm Research and Markets predicted a 6.1% growth in 2021.

Lifvs is planning to launch hundreds more container stores in Sweden in the next few years, following heavy lobbying from other local communities who’ve lost their shops.

There is global interest in the idea, and the company’s mulling whether to share its technology with supermarket chains in other countries or launch more of its own container stores across Europe.

“Any country with a rural area or any country that has this type of lack of service has asked us when we can come to their country and expand… England, Spain, Portugal, Germany,” says Mr Lundh. “We’ll definitely expand outside Sweden in the near future.”

Elsewhere in Sweden, Lifvs has competition from the country’s major supermarket chains ICA and Coop, which have been testing both unmanned stores and hybrid models, with some shops going staff-less during off-peak hours only.

In Stockholm, Coop recently opened an unstaffed convenience store in the same building as Epicenter, a chic glass-flanked co-working and innovation hub in the city centre. While quieter than usual during the pandemic, the idea is that its tech-aware members can feed back on their experiences using the store, and any other new retail technologies Coop wants to experiment with.

“The first time I used [the unmanned store] it took a while to get the idea how it would work,” says Jonny Josef, head of innovation for a Swedish bank based in the building. “I like the idea… it’s not seamless, but I think you could improve it, with face recognition.”

Cecilia Johansson, an entrepreneur working in tech and retail, says the store has been handy during long work days when she needs energy-boosting snacks.

She’s convinced unmanned shops could become mainstream in city centres within five years. “Even though the year of 2020 has been different and people are staying home, I think there is a need for people to have the opportunity to just do really quick and easy purchases while they’re on the run.”

Coop says it hasn’t yet decided how many more unmanned shops to open, but it insists its long-term strategy doesn’t involve mass job cuts. Instead, existing staff will be trained to focus on providing better customer advice and experiences in its biggest stores.

“If you think about an Apple store, if you have noticed how they are built, their ability to create a community – sort-of like a plaza – I think the future of supermarkets is something very similar,” says Amer Mohammed, Coop’s digital director in Sweden.