State of the Internet: The Broadband Future Is Faster, but Still Unevenly Distributed

Higginbotham, Stacey. "State of the Internet: The Broadband Future Is Faster, but Still Unevenly Distributed." Gigaom, January 22, 2013. 

From the article: "We may not be a gigabit nation yet when it comes to broadband, but the latest data from Akamai shows that the the number of broadband connections over 10 Mbps — what Akamai dubs “high broadband” has grown by 73 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012. The country has also see a 20 percent overall increase in average speed  to 7.2 Mbps over the past year, but the number of people who have adopted broadband (measured at anything above 4 Mbps) was 62 percent, which puts the U.S. at No. 12 in the worldwide rankings when it comes to adoption and No. 9 when it comes to average speeds." Read more

Benefits of 4G Overstated, Says Report

Thomas, Daniel. "Benefits of 4G Overstated, Says Report." The Financial Times, October 29, 2012.  

From the article: "Superfast broadband is unlikely to deliver the rapid returns for the UK economy that have been predicted, according to a leading business consultancy, before Britain’s first 4G network launch on Tuesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit will say on Tuesday that expectations of big early returns from superfast fibre and mobile broadband may be overstated, even if there is greater confidence of a beneficial longer-term impact.

….The report – Superfast Britain? Myths and realities about the UK’s broadband future – was sponsored by Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, and will be presented at a conference on Tuesday attended by Ed Vaizey, communications minister." Read more

Now It Gets Interesting: How to build a Social Contract for Broadband

Levin, Blair. "Now It Gets Interesting: How to build a Social Contract for Broadband." GigaOm. October 19, 2012. 

From the article: "For a century, our country has benefited from a communications social contract in telephone, broadcast, and multi-channel video in which through law, regulation, and franchise agreements, providers obtain public benefits in exchange for providing certain, limited public obligations. But how will we write the terms of the social contract between communities and communications providers in building the next infrastructure of world-class IP communications for the 21st century?

The question regarding how to build it has become increasingly important as Internet communications begin to supplant 20th Century methods of delivering voice and video, but it remains unanswered. When we developed the National Broadband Plan, we expressed our concern that the current social contracts governing communications would not create a critical mass of communities with world-leading bandwidth, without which the United States might lose its international leadership in developing the next generation of broadband applications." Read more

Broadband Internet and New Firm Formation: A U.S. Perspective

Parajuli, Jitendra and Kingsley E. Haynes. "Broadband Internet and New Firm Formation: A U.S. Perspective." (September 10, 2012). GMU School of Public Policy Research Paper Forthcoming.

From the abstract: "Broadband Internet is considered as an important determinant of economic growth and development. A number of studies examined the impact of broadband on migration, firm location, and economic growth. However, the relationship between broadband infrastructure and new firm formation in the U.S. has not been investigated. This paper fills that gap by empirically examining the relationship between broadband Internet and new firm formation. It is found that single-unit firm births and the provision of broadband are positive and significantly related across almost all industry sectors in the U.S. However, the impact of broadband provisioning on new firm formation is sensitive to agglomeration and aggregate and sectoral growth patterns of states and economic sectors."

Read more

Survey: Parents, Teachers Believe Broadband Boosts Performance

Eggerton, John. "Survey: Parents, Teachers Believe Broadband Boosts Performance." Broadcasting & Cable, September 10, 2012.

From the article: "According to a poll from the Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission, teachers and parents say schools should be doing more to improve access to technology in education, with access to the Internet high on the list.

The vast majority of parents and teachers said they would rather spend money on Internet-connected digital devices than the same amount on text books…. More than half of teachers (61%) and about the same percentage of parents (63%) polled said they thought that the country was "behind the curve" when it came to public school use of technology." Read more

See also
"Poll Finds Support For Use Of Technology." LEAD Commission, September 10, 2012. 

The Future of Health Care Innovations Depend on Today's Policies

Ko, Kathy Lim. "Health Care Innovations Depend on Today's Policies." iHealthBeat, August23, 2012.

From the blog: "While there is no single solution that will eliminate health and health care disparities, advances in technology offer some exciting possibilities. Health IT and the use of electronic health records have the potential to transform the health care delivery system into one that is more patient-centered and coordinated, with improved quality and lowered costs. … Unfortunately, these technologies are not without their own challenges. Low-income communities and communities of color often lack access to the high-speed broadband that supports these life-saving and enhancing technologies. Without a dedicated push to promote the adoption of new technologies in underserved communities, many may continue to be denied access to such technologies." Read more

FCC Report: Broadband Health Care Networks Improve Quality of Care For Rural Americans, Reduce Costs and Help Save Lives

Federal Communications Commission. FCC Report: Broadband Health Care Networks Improve Quality of Care For Rural Americans, Reduce Costs and Help Save Lives. Press Release Washington DC: FCC,  August 13, 2012.

  

From the article:  "Broadband health care networks improve the quality and reduce the cost of delivering care in rural areas, according to a Federal Communications Commission staff report evaluating the Commission’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program.

…Broadband networks of rural and urban providers save lives by providing rural Americans with instant access to specialized services that are not available in rural areas, saving time that is critical in stroke care and other emergencies. High-speed broadband networks capable of supporting telemedicine and telehealth applications also provide rural patients access to more routine telehealth consultations with medical specialists, efficiently transit health records, and facilitate training of nurses and doctors."  Read more

See also

"Wireline Competition Bureau Evaluation Of Rural Health Care Pilot Program Staff Report." FCC, WC Docket No. 02-60, August 13, 2012.

US Broadband Growth Slows to a Trickle With Only 260,000 New Connections

Malik, Om. "US Broadband Growth Slows to a Trickle With Only 260,000 New Connections." Gigaom, August 14, 2012.

From the article: "US broadband is growing – albeit much more slowly according to data collected by Leichtman Research Group, a market research company. During the second quarter of 2012, US added 260,000 broadband subscribers, down sharply from 350,000 broadband subscribers…. According to Leichtman, “the net broadband additions in the quarter were the fewest of any quarter in the eleven years LRG has been tracking the industry.” Read more

It’s a Small World after All: Internet Access and Institutional Quality

Sheehan, Kathleen M and Andrew T. Young. "It’s a Small World after All: Internet Access and Institutional Quality." (July 31, 2012).

From the abstract: "We examine a panel of over 100 countries in up to 4 five year periods and estimate the effects of Internet use and access to broadband Internet access on the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index. We find evidence that the net effect of Internet access on institutional quality is non-linear. It is positive at low initial levels of institutional quality and turns negative at higher levels. We hypothesize that increased Internet access affects institutions through three channels: (i) it may strengthen institutions by solving coordination problems; (ii) it may increase the number of countries that can be viewed as “neighbors”, thus increasing the potential for institutional spillovers; (iii) increased Internet access may increase emotional contagion and the demand for collective action. We find that the effect of Internet use and access on economic freedom is largely positive but contingent on the initial level of economic freedom. Specifically, (i) and (ii) appear to dominate at lower initial levels of economic freedom and for most of the countries in our sample. However, at higher initial levels of freedom (iii) becomes relatively important; for a few OECD countries in our sample, the total effect is negative." Read more

NSA Boss Wants More Control Over the 'Net

Simonite, Tom. "NSA Boss Wants More Control Over the 'Net." Technology Review, July 27, 2012.

From the blog: "The U.S. Internet's infrastructure needs to be redesigned to allow the NSA to know instantly when overseas hackers might be attacking public or private infrastructure and computer networks, the agency's leader, General Keith Alexander, said today.

Alexander spoke at the annual Def Con computer hacking conference in Las Vegas. It was a symbolic appearance that he said was motivated by a need to interest the hacker community in helping to make the Internet more secure.

Alexander, who is also commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, described the Internet as "at great risk from exploitation, disruption, and destruction." Read more

See also

Cowley, Stacy. "NSA wants to Hire Hackers." CNN, July 29, 2012.

The Power of the Unlicensed Economy

Thanki, Richard. "The Power of the Unlicensed Economy." All ThingsD.com, July 10, 2012.

From the blog: "In 1985, the Federal Communications Commission permitted, for the first time, low-powered wireless communications equipment to be used without the need for a license. The prospects for this experiment were not entirely promising. The bands of radio spectrum assigned for unlicensed use were full of powerful and polluting industrial uses and were thus widely considered “junk spectrum,” unsuitable for communications.

However, the potential rewards offered by this new, unlicensed spectrum were also great: Citizens and businesses might have the freedom to deploy their own wireless networks without the need for costly and bureaucratic spectrum licences, encouraging a deluge of technological and business model innovation, transforming this onetime “junk spectrum” into the most economically productive radio spectrum in the world, and becoming home to an incredible diversity of coexisting uses. Unsurprisingly, the unlicensed bands have been adopted worldwide." Read more