Teleworking and FTTH may enter Dutch political agenda

Broadband in general, and FTTH in particular, may enter politics in the Netherlands. An FNV sponsored survey (in Dutch), conducted by ADV Market Research, revealed that people increasingly want to work from home (teleworking = working through home broadband connection).

FNV and ADV point out that teleworking will contribute to reduced pollution (less traffic congestion), increased productivity (migration of hours spent from sitting in the car to being productive), as well as more people joining the working ranks (mums returning from maternity leave; disabled people; etc.).

FNV is the largest union in the country, so this may very well be put forward in future wage negotiations and political discussions.

As I wrote before, broadband is an indispensable enabler of teleworking, and FTTH will add video conferencing. That may stimulate those managers who so far are reluctant to allow their people to work from home. According to the survey, one in three of those eligible for teleworking is refused to do so for fear of lack of oversight. A videolink will mitigate this.

To round of, here is an interesting calculation from the survey. Should all current teleworking ambitions (83% wants to telework 1 day a week, 14% wants 2 days, 3% wants 3 days) be awarded, nationwide carbondioxide reductions could reach 11%.