The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) recently released their State of Broadband 2013 report. Two striking details that should help the US take notice – we are ranked 24th in terms of broadband adoption and 20th in terms of household access to fixed broadband.
So that aside – the report provides information for improving broadband by focusing on some basic questions…
– Why should everyone be connected?
– Is there a viable business case to connect the last 5-10% of the population?
– How can we connect women, minorities, and disadvantaged groups?
– Have Universal Service Funds (USFs) been extended to include broadband?
It’s an interesting report. I thought I’d just pull out some of my highlights in each section…
– Why should everyone be connected?
Ecosystems of innovation do not happen overnight. efficient financial, educational, legal and regulatory frameworks are needed, which typically take more than a generation to build. innovation is a four-facetted mindset, involving people, ideas, finance, and market. yet, history often provides ‘accelerators’ which have proven beneficial to innovation. Broadband is one such accelerator, driving rapid change across the four pillars of innovation. …
Combined with cloud computing, broadband could generate ‘innovation-as-a-service’ in ideas across emerging economies via telepresence, crowd-sourcing and remote collaboration. Broadband also improves financing by allowing innovators to reach venture capitalists in other regions more easily.
– Is there a viable business case to connect the last 5-10% of the population?
The report makes the case for governments to get involved in broadband access…
For households in OECD countries, there is a threshold broadband access speed to increase in earnings, somewhere between 0.5 mbps and 2 mbps on average. The greatest expected increase in income is for the transition from being without broadband to gaining 4 mbps, the difference being around US$2,100 per household per year (equivalent to US$182 per month).
The report also fleshes out some ideas for Wi-Fi and Spectrum hybrids for reaching rural areas in developing countries. I don’t know if the Macguyver-type connections would be as effective in rural Minnesota but perhaps with considering…
Inveneo partnered with a local NGO, [in the Winam gulf on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria] organic health response (OHR), to design, build and support wireless connectivity that relies on a 90 kilometer wireless highly directional 5.8 ghz Wifi link (travelling mostly over water) and powered by a hybrid solar/wind electrical system38 serving the Ekialo Kiona (EK) center, a computer center, library and training facility available for use by all of the island inhabitants.
The report strongly advocates for a national broadband plan and suggests that public-private partnership can start with public policy decisions that support broadband growth, support for digital literacy programming and digitizing of public services.
The report also include a list of provider barriers and approaches governments can take to minimize barriers…
- Obstacle: Low levels of purchasing power in certain rural and sub-urban areas
Solutions:
• Subsidies to the benefit of endusers, to ensure broadband adoption, once access is secured
• Discounted offers from operators to end-users
• Telecentres for shared use to kickstart broadband markets
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs) - Obstacle: Limited financial resources available via some USFs
Solutions:
• Policy-makers should work with operators, depending on local needs and government funding, to ensure USF is properly sourced and effective.
• Support (e.g. from international agencies) for ad-hoc projects.
• Priority given to UAS projects based on strict and clear criteria - Obstacle: The low levels of ICT skills of some of the population
Solutions:
• ICT training
• Connecting up educational establishments
• ICT lessons in schools and universities, and
• ICT equipment furnished at low or no cost - Obstacle: The lack of basic commodities (water, electricity, etc.)
Solutions:
• Telecentres open to the public where access to commodities is guaranteed
• Wi-Fi access in public spaces where access to commodities is guaranteed - Obstacle: The limited availability of consumer electronic equipment
Solutions:
• Distribution of equipment directly, or subsidies for consumer electronic equipment by poor households
• Review import duty regimes to ensure they are effective.
• Equipment approval (supply) policies should not be too onerous or restrictive. - Obstacle: High tax rates on telecom services or equipment
Solution:
• Targeted tax and import duty reductions on broadband services and devices, including removal of luxury taxes. - Obstacle: Lack of infrastructure/ high costs of deployment
Solutions:
• National broadband plan, including rollout of a mutualized national backbone, as well as in-building infrastructure
• Grants to operators to build out infrastructure
• Sharing of infrastructure and works - Obstacle: Administrative delays in authorizations to deploy new infrastructure
Solutions:
• Involve relevant agencies and Ministries early
• Streamline licensing procedures
• Eliminate red-tape and delays
• Remove barriers and obstacles to owning land - Obstacle: Limited economic growth in certain areas
Solution:
• Ongoing subsidy programmes on the demand side, following investment on the supply side - Obstacle: Limitations in amount of spectrum available
Solutions:
• Streamline spectrum licensing and re-farming practices
• Implementation of the digital switch-over
• More effective policies for spectrum allocation/assignment - Obstacle: Limited availability of relevant local content
Solutions:
• Subsidies and awards for the development of local content
• Development of e-government services, open government / freedom of information policies.
The report highlights Korea’s broadband plan. Almost 96 percent of Korea has access to ultra-fast broadband (100 Mbps); the rural areas, however, have speeds as slow as 2 Mbps. Korea made a plan to change that…
To bridge the digital gap between rural/urban areas and revitalize the rural agricultural and maritime economy, Korean central and local governments and a telecom provider have invested in a matching fund (1:1:2) in 2010 to build a 100 mbps broadband network in towns with fewer than 50 households in rural areas. By 2012, the network had been built in 2,530 towns, and will soon be extended to 13,200 towns, eventually achieving nationwide coverage.
Korea also made a plan for public access via Wi-Fi…
To ensure all people have internet access, the government initiated a public Wifi project in 2012, providing free-of-charge Wifi service in public places such as parks, museums and libraries. in cooperation with operators, the government is implementing Wifi networks in public places and shares the networks to reduce service costs, and manage mobile data traffic. in 2012, three mobile carriers in Korea built 2,000 public Wifi zones nationwide, and are planning to deploy 10,000 zones in total by 2017.
– How can we connect women, minorities, and disadvantaged groups?
One answer seems to be via mobile access. The report include a features section on m-money. Or mobile money. The report points out that one roadblock to entrepreneurship in developing nations is difficult access to banks. Yet with 96 percent penetration in mobile market, many people, even in developing countries have access to a cell phone, which means with mobile money that anyone with access to a cell phone can now access money…
Mobile money can help bridge gender gaps in developing countries, and address key constraints to women’s access to financial services. illiterate, rural women are perfectly able to learn to use and appreciate such services
– Have Universal Service Funds (USFs) been extended to include broadband?
The report offers some advice to USFs in general…
- To achieve their aims, USFs should be distributed in a competitive and technology neutral way.
- Universal access and service is not just about access networks, but also about backhaul networks.
- They also mention that Intel has a series of USF workshops that they offer all over the world. They target developing worlds and provide a platform for private and public sectors to work together to develop a USF plan that is effective.
The report ends with a list of policy recommendations…
- Promote market liberalization
- Review and update regulatory service obligations
- Consider open access approaches to infrastructure
- Introduce and develop a National Broadband Plan
- Update and utilize Universal Service Funds (USFs)
- Review licensing Schemes
- Review & reduce taxation
- Review policy frameworks for Spectrum
- Spur demand and introduce measures to stimulate the creation of local content
- Support accurate and timely statistical monitoring
Consider undertaking public consultations on policy