High-speed access and economic growth
My obsession for the last few months: Economic growth is tied to new ideas; new ideas are more likely to emerge online than anywhere else; so universal highspeed internet access should be a key government policy. And those private providers have every reason to skew things towards their own benefit rather than the larger social good.
Today there's a report from Australia saying — according to MuniWireless — that there's an association between highspeed internet access and economic growth. The report costs a good deal to access, which is unfortunate. But here's a nice summary:
This year’s report presents a compelling case for the roll-out of broadband in all regions and that it is the key driver of economic growth.
The Report found:
· the failure to address inferior Internet access quality could cost regions up to $2.7 billion in foregone gross regional products and up to 30,000 jobs in 2006;
· regions with poor access to telecommunications technology are less productive;
· firms that use the Internet can increase their sales 3.4% faster than other firms; and
· high speed broadband provides the best opportunity for Australia’s industries to access global supply chains.
The Report says that the connection of rural communities to broadband is happening ‘relatively slowly’, despite Government programs.
So — maybe someday we'll have access to the whole report. But for the meantime it's an interesting summarized data point.
Also good news today in Commr. McDowell's strong (and well-reasoned) statement that he wouldn't be un-recusing himself.
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3 Responses to “High-speed access and economic growth”
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So - any thoughts on what the new Trans-Pacific cable will do for China? Or, American companies in china, for that matter…
Here's an overview post about it - http://searchviews.com/archives/2006/12/transpacific_ca.php
but it doesn't get into the details of the implications for online (and economic) growth.
I recently read an article about that the current Internet has all kinds of limitations. Some universities are working spending millions to come up with a system that will replace the current Internet in about 15 years time. I thought that was interesting. I do think that with the current Internet their are limitations but it is my hope that they will improve in time. Well I guess only time will tell.
I’ve known that the Australian government is allocating some fund for the purpose of providing free broadband access to some people. I said some because we all know that not all Australian citizens have access to the internet. Not all places are served by some ISP. I was wondering why of all problems why the government prioritized this. So, you’re saying that according to the report:
• the failure to address inferior Internet access quality could cost regions up to $2.7 billion in foregone gross regional products and up to 30,000 jobs in 2006;
• regions with poor access to telecommunications technology are less productive;
• firms that use the Internet can increase their sales 3.4% faster than other firms; and
• high speed broadband provides the best opportunity for Australia’s industries to access global supply chains.
These are valid enough to justify this move by the Australian government. I just hope that the end result will benefit everyone not just companies or chosen firms.