Technology Administration Outlines Critical Issues for Broadband

Following President Bush’s call for the nation to "be aggressive about the deployment of broadband," the Technology Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce recently issued Understanding Broadband Demand — a 25-page paper examining the state of broadband demand and usage in the U.S. and identifying successes, challenges and actions to promote more aggressive uptake.

After several expert roundtables, TA concluded that, while significant supply side issues such as regulatory considerations remain, "(T)he factor most likely to accelerate broadband demand is the creation and deployment of easily understood, value-adding business and consumer applications at prices that meet the needs of the market."

TA points to December 2001 research that reveals the U.S. ranked sixth internationally in the percentage of total households with broadband usage at 10.4 percent. South Korea led the world with 51.7 percent, followed by Hong Kong (26.0 percent), Canada (19.7 percent), Taiwan (18.2 percent) and Sweden (13.4 percent).

Broadband usage and demand is heavily skewed toward higher incomes. Market research has found that 72 percent of dial-up consumers will not upgrade to broadband because of its high cost, which also rose 11-16 percent last year. In addition, a separate study found 75 percent of dial-up users are content with the quality of their current service.

Understanding Broadband Demand concludes with a discussion of several steps that can be taken to accelerate broadband demand. Twenty-seven recommendations are organized by actor: the federal government, state and local governments, business leaders, and innovators and entrepreneurs.

On the state and local level, TA recommends:

* Considering bandwidth when addressing issues such as rights of way, taxes and application fees, tower siting, zoning, building and construction codes, building access, franchise agreements, historic preservation and environmental protections.
* Aggregating demand to spur carrier deployment.
* Educating citizens and businesses.
* Deploying egovernment.
* Removing non-telecom barriers to killer apps.
* Offering regional broadband planning assistance.
* Encouraging experiments (e.g. Fiber-To-The-Home New Builds).

Links to successful examples of state and local initiatives are provided for many of the recommendations.

Understanding Broadband Demand is available at: http://www.ta.doc.gov/Reports.htm

To learn more about Broadband…
Successful state and local efforts to encourage broadband deployment and usage will be discussed at Bringing Broadband to All, one of more than 30 sessions next week at SSTI’s 6th Annual Conference, Building Tech-based Economic Development: From Policy to Practice. Bob Filka, Vice President of the Michigan Broadband Authority Board, and Jane Patterson, Executive Director of North Carolina’s Rural Internet Access Authority, will share insights on their programs on Thursday at 2:00. Doug Devereaux, Technology Policy Analyst with the TA Office of Technology Policy, will moderate the session.

More information about SSTI’s conference is available at: http://www.ssti.org/conference02.htm

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Please try to attend the Roundtable to learn more about the challenges of communication and connectivity from Steve DelBianco, VP Association for Competitive Technology http://www.ACTonline.org in Missoula on Friday 10/16 at The Inn on Broadway- 1609 W. Broadway- Missoula, MT

http://matr.net/events.phtml?showdetail=294

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Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.