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Broadband internet access in general, and mobile broadband in particular, are becoming increasingly important to national economies and the personal lives of users.  In the US alone there  were about 84.4 million mobile broadband connections at the beginning of 2011, virtually the same as the number of fixed broadband connection (FCC 2011, Table 1).   Nevertheless, as with nearly all new technology, broadband availability and  adoption are  not diffusing as quickly in rural areas or  among certain minority groups.  This article presents an up to date view of the rural and minority digital divide based on latest statistics, showing that significant divides in both availability and usage persist.  The  potential for mobile broadband to be an engine of growth for rural economic development is then examined.  Mobile broadband  also  holds significant potential for urban areas as well, given  the  importance of broadband, particularly mobile broadband, for urban minority communities.

"August and September, in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), I conducted a national survey of IEDC members and others affiliated with IEDC. The primary goal was to get a snapshot of how broadband impacts local economic outcomes. A secondary goal was to gather some insights to leveraging broadband as an economic development asset. This is the only survey that goes directly to the people who work in the trenches daily impacting local economic outcomes. Here is where I separate some of the hype surrounding broadband's power to transform local economies with some reality checks. Some of the findings from this year's survey include: only 11% of economic developers believe broadband's biggest economic benefit to individuals is helping them find jobs; 18% of respondents have insufficient speeds to produce economic outcomes listed and have given up hope for a solution; another 13% do not have enough speed to get the job done, but are actively trying to find or create a solution; 43.5% of respondents' jurisdictions exist under duopoly conditions, 15.5% are in communities that live with a broadband monopoly; about 12% of respondent' say their communities plan to start building broadband networks in the next 18 months, another 22% hope to build a network at some point in the future; 64% of respondents reject convention broadband remedies for urban areas to say "faster speeds, cheaper services" will have the biggest impact on economic development (value of computing centers compromised by crappy infrastructure in poor communities); fiber continues to outshine wireless in terms of expected impact on economic outcomes, with the biggest gap in expectations in the areas of attracting businesses to a community and making local companies more competitive; and 41% - 48% of respondents believe broadband can increase the number of home-based businesses; and significant percentages of respondents say broadband adoption doesn't mean j

High-speed affordable broadband  connectivity to the Internet is  essential to modern society, offering  widely recognized economic and  social benefits (Annex 1). The  Broadband Commission for Digital  Development promotes the adoption  of broadband-friendly practices and  policies for all, so everyone can take  advantage of the benefits offered by  broadband.  With this Report, the Broadband  Commission expands awareness  and understanding of the importance of broadband networks,  services, and applications for  generating economic growth and  achieving social progress.  It has been written collaboratively,  drawing on insightful and thoughtprovoking contributions from our  leading array of Commissioners and  their organizations, foremost in their  fields. This Report is structured around  four main themes which can  help us to realize the potential of  broadband 

The Internet Age is here.  The effective use of this technology and all that it can provide is a key to success for businesses and individuals.  Knowing this, the Obama Administration seeks to ensure that all Americans have affordable access to broadband Internet services.  Accomplishing that goal, however, requires a set of facts about Internet use that can underpin and guide this policy objective. In Exploring the Digital Nation: Home Broadband Internet Adoption in the United States, the Commerce Department fulfills its promise to provide authoritative, nationally-comprehensive data on access to the Internet throughout the United States.  This new study follows the February 2010 NTIA research preview, Digital Nation: 21st Century America's Progress Toward Universal Broadband Internet Access. Both studies draw on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey Internet Use Supplement, a survey of approximately 54,000 households conducted over one week in October 2009.  The Census data show increases in adoption of broadband services at home over time for virtually all demographic groups.  The data also reveal that demographic disparities among groups have tended to persist. Persons with high incomes, those who are younger, Asians and Whites, the more highly-educated, married couples, and the employed tend to have higher rates of broadband use at home.  Conversely, persons with low incomes, seniors, minorities, the less-educated, non-family households, and the nonemployed tend to lag behind other groups in home broadband use. The new study takes the analysis to another level.

There is little debate that increasing broadband access spurs economic development, but can this be quantified? There have been numerous studies by economic and telecommunications analysts which study the correlation between broadband access and number of jobs created, as well as measuring the economic impact of broadband. There are multiple economic factors that could affect the results, as well many facets of providing broadband Internet access, which have the potential to significantly affect the results.

After writing about broadband for nearly a decade-and-a-half, it is finally good to see our politicians actually thinking about broadband and connectedness in a thoughtful manner. Almost! First, the news: On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama will sign an order to make the approval process for broadband network buildout on roads and federal property smoother, easier and simpler. "Building a nationwide broadband network will strengthen our economy and put more Americans back to work," said President Obama. "By connecting every corner of our country to the digital age, we can help our businesses become more competitive, our students become more informed and our citizens become more engaged."

The European Commission is preparing a review of the present Broadband Guidelines by September 2012. This early revision reflects the fact that at the time of passing the Guidelines there was only limited experience at the European Commission regarding State aid notifications dealing with NGA networks. Moreover the revision has to take into account a number of specific questions related to technology which came up with the decision making in the context of public funding of NGA networks. The core objective of the present study is to support the revision process by drawing lessons from the implementation of past decisions and by clarifying a given set of technological issues.  Against this background the purpose of the study is twofold.   According to the Terms of Reference the study should   * assess the functioning of the existing framework by assessing the implementation of a selected sample of projects in the broadband sector. Such projects should include both European and non-European ventures, when the latter can provide useful insights due to their possible more advanced stage of implementation. The assessment should focus on an analysis of the potential difficulties experienced with the implementation of the conditions set out in the European Commission authorisation decision as well as on potential implications for the review of the Broadband Guidelines.  * give advice to the European Commission services regarding a limited number of technical issues which are relevant for the implementation of the Broadband Guidelines. The main issues to be addressed are:   (a) Technological solutions for NGA networks;   (b) Granting wholesale access to competitors on the subsidized networks  and different "open access" products;   (c) Separation.   The two objectives of the study are intertwined, and at the end lead to consistent recommendations for the upcoming revision of the Broadband Guidelines.

A novel new approach to underwriting the costs of next generation broadband - fiber to the home while addressing the challenges of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions and providing new revenue model for service providers. See below for more details FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012 A novel way to fund broadband FTTH Internet - converting old coax/copper into microgrids [I have long argued that we need to find new business models to underwrite costs of next generation broadband - Fiber to the Home ( FTTH) if we ever hope to breakup the existing broadband oligopoly. The lobbying powers of cableco/telcos are so intense and overwhelming that even the few community broadband initiatives that still remain are likely doomed from this relentless onslaught.

This report assesses whether policies to raise broadband availability will contribute, as hoped, to local  economic development. Our analysis relies on the fact that broadband technology has diffused unevenly  throughout the United States, thus allowing us to compare economic indicators between areas with greater  and less growth in broadband availability. Using broadband data from the Federal Communications  Commission and economic data from several government and proprietary sources, we examine broadband  availability and economic activity throughout the nation between 1999 and 2006

In working across the globe and working with multiple carriers deploying new, more robust broadband networks, Strategic Networks Group consistently comes up against the notion that once the network is built, adoption will naturally follow.  "Build it and they will come" is a school of thought that expresses the great hope that potential subscribers will naturally adopt, however this notion goes against what we have always known about technology adoption. Meanwhile, broadband is broadband for many consumers and businesses - who do not see the difference, nor what is possible with ultra-fast broadband (e.g. fiber / Fiber-to-the-Home). On the other hand, organizations like US Ignite are forming to promote "Next generation Applications," specifically new applications in education, healthcare, clean energy, public safety, and workforce development, including advanced manufacturing. These require the ultra-fast broadband connectivity which the networks being rolled out today will provide. And before we get to "Next generation applications," consider the bandwidth required to support online collaboration so critical to being competitive in a 21st century economy.

"The 90% having access to broadband was announced by Ofcom recently, but it should be made totally clear that the Ofcom 90% figure refers to broadband connecting at 2 Mbps or faster. The number having any form of broadband what so ever will be higher, and while this may be so slow that even low quality video streaming is not possible, basic email/banking should be possible on any broadband service that is running above dial-up speeds"

The report presents the ICT Development Index (IDI), which ranks countries' performance  with regard to ICT infrastructure and uptake, and the ICT Price Basket (IPB), a unique metric  that tracks and compares the cost and affordability of ICT services. This edition also features  new data series and analyses concerning revenue and investment in the ICT sector, and  proposes a new methodology using non-conventional data, to measure the world's  telecommunication capacity.  The past year has seen continued and almost universal growth in ICT uptake. Much of this enhanced connectivity is due to  the rapid uptake - a 40 per cent rise in 2011 - of mobile-broadband subscriptions, to the point where there are now twice  as many mobile-broadband as fixed-broadband subscriptions. The surge in numbers of mobile-broadband subscriptions  in developing countries has brought the Internet to a multitude of new users. The report nevertheless notes that the prices  for ICT services remain very high in many low-income countries. For mobile broadband to replicate the mobile-cellular  miracle, 3G network coverage has to be extended, and prices have to go down further.

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development, in partnership with ITU- BDT, has developed country case studies taking an in-depth look at the state of broadband development in four emerging economies spanning the Americas, Asia and Europe. A series of case studies are being conducted to underline the importance of broadband and ICTs in achieving the MDGs, and to assist countries in meeting the Broadband Challenge and Targets adopted by the Broadband Commission in October 2011. The studies were launched during a special side event held at the WSIS Forum 2012.

The US is a long way from its goal of making broadband Internet available to all 314 million Americans. In its third annual broadband progress report, the Federal Communications Commission says 19 million Americans have no option to buy fixed broadband Internet service, and an additional 100 million Americans that do live in areas where broadband is available are not subscribers.

The aim of the report is to promote the sharing of best practices adopted by PPP broadband projects, whether they have been used to provide broadband access nationally, regionally, or in rural areas. The purpose of the document is not to focus on the approach followed by any single PPP broadband project, or to promote any one project, but to provide an overall view of the best practices implemented among all the projects. These best practices have been identified as beneficial for future PPP broadband projects, and which, if followed, should deliver successful outcomes.

This paper provides estimates of the economic value created by broadband Internet using measures of new gross domestic product and consumer surplus.  The study finds that the economic value created in  30OECD countries correlates roughly with the overall size of their broadband economies. In addition, price and quality data from the  United States suggest that widespread adoption of broadband Internet has occurred without a dramatic decline in prices, which reflects an unobserved increase in broadband quality that conventional government statistics do not capture.

Governments around the world are investing multiple billions to support the roll-out of fiber to enable high speed broadband. These subsidies are based on the premise that fiber to the home (FTTH) brings substantial externalities. It is argued that FTTH will support economic growth and is key to national competitiveness; that it will benefit education, healthcare, transportation and the electricity industry; and that it will be the TV platform of the future. In this paper we argue that the evidence to support these views is surprisingly weak, and that there are several errors that are made repeatedly when making the case for FTTH. In particular: * The evidence that basic broadband contributed to economic growth is decidedly mixed, and some of the studies reporting greater benefits have significant flaws * Time and again, data that basic broadband brings certain benefits is used to justify investment in fiber - but the investment in fiber must be based on the incremental benefits of higher speed, since (in the developed world) there is already near universal basic broadband * This error is compounded since other high speed broadband infrastructures (such as cable, and in time wireless) are often simply ignored when making the case for fiber * Fibre is credited with bringing benefits that would in fact require major systems and social change in other parts of the economy, such as a widespread shift to home working, or remote medical care. In practice, these changes may never happen, and even if they do they will have significant additional cost beyond simply rolling out fibre * Frequently business or government applications, such as remote medical imaging, are used to make the case for FTTH. But these applications require fiber to certain major buildings, not to entire residential neighborhoods (and these buildings often have high speed connections already) We do not argue that there is no commercial case for rolling out fiber, nor do we argue that fiber b

This study calculates the impact of investment in broadband technology on employment and output of Germany's economy. Two sequential investment scenarios are analyzed: the first one is based on the Government's "National Broadband Strategy" aimed at ensuring that 75 percent of German households have broadband access of at least 50 Mbps by 2014. The second scenario, covering 2015-2020, is labeled "ultra-broadband", and ensures that 50 percent of German households have access to at least 100 Mbps and another 30 percent to 50 Mbps by 2020. 

"The Broadband Strategies Handbook is a guide for policy-makers, regulators, and other relevant stakeholders as they address issues related to broadband development. It aims to help readers, particularly those in developing countries, by identifying issues and challenges in broadband development, analyzing potential solutions to consider, and providing practical examples from countries that have addressed broadband-related matters."

Last year the U.S. broadband stimulus program finished awarding public, private and  nonprofit organizations over $7 billion to build new broadband infrastructure, create  public computing centers and implement broadband adoption programs. Concurrently,  hundreds of millions have come from private and other public sources for broadband.  Improving economic development is a driving force behind these investments.  What have we achieved for our investments, particularly in underserved urban and rural  communities? It is a little early in the process, though, and only a small portion of the  stimulus checks have been issued. Perhaps the more important question is, what  economic outcomes can we hope to achieve in the next two or three years? This  survey's results provide a number of clues.