Best Practices and Strategies for Broadband Deployment

Broadband deployment is a necessity nowadays. It could help each country, municipality and region to grow and offer better quality of life to the citizens. Today, the emphasis on the development of broadband networks is on fixed Fibre To The Home solutions The lessons learned from countries that are leaders in broadband penetration and Fibre To The Home deployment could be proven very useful for under-served communities, regions and countries where the broadband penetration is low. Therefore, this chapter summarises the lessons learned from implementing (a) country-wide strategies formulated at the national level, and (b) local strategies formulated by the municipalities. Concerning the role of national and local governments, it should be noted that nowadays it is very urgent the involvement of government in the development of broadband infrastructure. Proposed noteworthy remarkable cases are Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

The Effectiveness of Government Policies in Broadband Deployment

While the potential economic and social benefits of broadband internet use are significant, adoption levels vary greatly among countries around the world. Many governments, particularly those in Southeast Asia, have adopted aggressive policies to deploy broadband networks and to encourage the use of applications. Governments are motivated to promote broadband adoption in order to realize both economic and social benefits. This paper argues that the generally higher levels of broadband adoption rates witnessed in many Asian economies, is attributable in part to the aggressive policies pursued by these governments. There is some evidence to suggest that these governmental policies have been successful in achieving their stated goals.

The Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 charged the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop and deliver to Congress a national broadband plan by February 17, 2010. The FCC formally commenced the process of developing the plan by issuing a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on April 8, 2009. The NOI identified broadband issues and critical questions and asked stakeholders to respond to these issues and questions with data and analysis. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the written documents generated by stakeholders’ responses concerning the specific issues of open networks and competition and to make recommendations to the FCC in its formulation of federal policy as to the position that makes the most economic sense on these issues. We find that many of the arguments and concerns of stakeholders are dependent upon predictions regarding the competitiveness of ISP markets. We predict with confidence that technological innovations are likely to make many legal arguments (on all sides) obsolete in the near future.

Strategic Interaction under Asymmetric Regulation

Regulation binds incumbent firms to a different set of obligations from their entrant-competitors, thereby creating an asymmetric set of options from which the firms may select the strategies under which they will interact. Whilst most regulatory obligations are specified in law, some take the form of contractual agreements. New Zealand’s ‘Kiwi Share’ obligations bind the telecommunications market incumbent to a set of retail tariff structures and levels that have both restricted its choices and opened up a range of new strategic opportunities for its rivals that have had a significant effect upon the development of the New Zealand industry. This paper examines the specific consequences of the asymmetric tariff obligations and ensuing strategic interaction amongst sector participants on sector development – namely the effect of universal service retail prices and the allocation of the ensuing costs in determining the ongoing regulatory agenda; the role of a ‘free local calling’ obligation on the evolution of New Zealand’s broadband market; and the consequent application of further asymmetric legislative obligations on the incumbent to address apparent ‘problems’ for which the asymmetric tariffs and rivals’ strategic choices provide more credible explanations than the incumbent’s exertion of its dominant position.

Media Platform Competition

In Taiwan, there are three major TV platforms: terrestrial TV, cable TV, and IPTV. When faced with various TV platforms, the consumers in Taiwan will be able to choose from many broadcasts. When a new medium emerges, there are always concerns of its displacement effects on existing media. Many studies have explored the displacement effects of newly-emerging media, and have come up with a variety of sometimes conflicting findings (Lee & Leung, 2006). This chapter aims to analyze the media platform competition, namely, the displacement effect of IPTV on cable TV. The research methods used include a literature review and a telephone survey. With regard to the telephone survey, 612 of CHT’s IPTV users were selected systematically based on the name lists provided by the service provider. In this study, while the platform displacement effect of IPTV on cable TV is clear, the statistics reveal a different result for the time displacement effect.

Consumer Usage of Broadband Internet Services

We analyze the intensity and patterns of use of fixed and mobile broadband consumers in Portugal. If usage across types of consumers is similar after controlling for individual characteristics identified to be important drivers of adoption, then it is more likely that consumers view mobile and fixed broadband as somewhat substitutable. Such a result is important for studies of broadband impacts; specifically, for discerning whether mobile broadband service will have a similar level of impact upon social and economic development as fixed broadband services have had. Results indicate that broadband uses are similar across fixed and mobile users, suggesting that the technologies are somewhat substitutable from customers’ perspectives and raising the possibility of limited differential effects on innovation and other social goals. Results of interest include the characteristics of Internet users by technology, and differences of usage patterns reflected by individual characteristics.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Rural Women’s Life in Bangladeshi Villages

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has the potential to contribute to development, especially in rural areas of developing countries. But the mechanisms through which ICT can be combined with development agendas and an understanding of the actual development process and impacts of ICT are less well understood or properly defined in the academic literature. This research is an attempt to contribute to understanding this process by analysing the impact of two ICT initiatives in Bangladesh, aimed at improving the lives of rural women. An interpretive approach in the qualitative research tradition was adopted to identify emergent themes in this study. Our findings indicate that these ICT projects have significantly improved the socio-economic opportunities of many women. This paper will be useful for those academics, practitioners and policymakers who wish to enhance their understanding of ICT projects in rural areas of developing countries.

Broadband and Structural Separation from the Perspective of Transaction Cost Economics

Conduct regulation and structural separation are often discussed in industrial organisation studies as options to prevent the abuse of market power by vertically integrated firms toward the downstream market. Both the structural separation of NTT and conduct regulation have been discussed in the Japanese telecommunications industry since the introduction of competition in 1985 and the issue is still being discussed, although the industry is going through a transition from POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) to the broadband internet. Past discussions have been inclined toward elimination of the harmful effects of vertical integration. However, there is a benefit of vertical integration in the sense that it will promote the efficient management of the firm concerned. I will present a new contention that it is important to conclude a balanced analysis of costs and benefits of vertical integration based on transaction cost theory. Structural separation in the broadband market entails significant transaction costs between a carrier with access facilities and firms offering broadband services by renting these facilities as input. These kinds of transaction costs are comparatively negligible in POTS. I will make it clear that the balance analysis of costs and benefits of structural separation has become more important in broadband than in POTS based on the actual differences in network structure.

Examining the Influence of Government Policy on Broadband Internet Access

Governments worldwide are driving initiatives to deploy broadband infrastructure and services. China has topped the world broadband market with the total broadband user base exceeding 320 million (CNNIC, 2009). However, a closer analysis indicates that broadband in China is less advanced in terms of penetration rate, access speed and price. Why China is lagging? Despite the fact that broadband performance and adoption are determined by both non-policy factors and policy factors, the OECD experience shows that smart national broadband policies are the key to broadband success. This chapter reviews and analyzes relevant regulations and government policies pertaining to broadband development in China using a multiple perspective model. The primary goal of this chapter is to examine how various policy factors interplay to affect broadband deployment and performance in the case of China. This research shows that the Chinese approach to broadband development has not produced desirable results. Several factors affect the growth of broadband. The most significant is lack of a detailed national broadband plan with clearly stated goals, performance targets and action plans for implementation. China’s regulatory arrangement and approaches to regulating broadband industry have failed to establish a well functioning and competitive market and to drive high levels of broadband performance, investment and innovation.

Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane

South Africa may be renowned for its natural attractions, warm climate and fine wine. But certainly not for high quality broadband. The country has fallen behind its international peers – both developing and developed markets – in the race to rollout Internet connectivity. In fact, even within the African continent, it is neither a leader nor progressive in comparison to its North African counterparts. This chapter aims to provide a chronology of the major developments in the provision of broadband Internet services in South Africa, as well as touching on the challenges faced in bringing this phenomenon into the mainstream. Reasons for the lack of diffusion and adoption of such services point to high end user costs of the service, a limited geographical footprint of both fixed-line and mobile broadband infrastructure, as well as a lack of computer literacy and understanding of what broadband is able to offer. The chapter continues to look at possible solutions including introducing a greater degree of competition into the market to facilitate downward pressure on prices, provisioning further international bandwidth through undersea fibre optic cables, as well as the unbundling of the local loop, to further this objective.