Lessons learnt from the broadband diffusion in South Korea and the UK: Implications for future government intervention in technology diffusion

Governments around the globe are rapidly introducing e-government initiatives with the role of the internet being regarded as pertinent. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) offer the capacity to an improved internet. Broadband technology is a form of ICT that is currently being adopted and diffused in many countries. In this paper, we outline how the role of the government can sustain broadband adoption. We use a framework developed by King et al. regarding institutional actions related to IT diffusion and examine the institutional actions taken by the South Korean government (hereafter referred as Korea) and we compare them with relevant policies pursued in Britain (hereafter referred as UK). We demonstrate that a comparison between the IT policies of the two countries allows research to extract the 'success factors' in government intervention in supporting technology diffusion, in order to render favourable results if applied elsewhere

Network Rules

Crawford compares the debate between the telcos and the online companies over broadband access regimes often called the network neutrality debate to the ongoing tussle between intellectual property maximalists and free culture advocates which are strikingly parallel sets of arguments. The maximalists claim that creativity comes from lone genuises (the romantic author) who must be given legal incentives to works but intellectual property scholars have carefully examined the incentives of their arguments and have pointed out that granting overly strong property rights to copyright holders might not be socially appropriate. Moreover, the network providers claim that they (the romantic builders) must be allowed by law to price-discriminate vis-a-vis content sources in order to be encouraged to build the network

Regulatory Approaches to NGNs: An International Comparison

The emergence of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) raises profound challenges for regulators everywhere. Different regulatory authorities have approached these problems in strikingly different ways, depending in part on the overall regulatory milieu in which they operate, and in part on the nature of the NGN migration envisioned by major market players. Also, the NGN core network raises significantly different issues from those of the NGN access network. The migration to NGN raises many of the same issues that were already on the table as a result of the broader migration to IP-based services, notably in regard to the de-coupling of the service from the underlying network. To these concerns are added profound questions related to the nature of market power. Will NGNs enable new forms of competition? Will competitive bottlenecks remain, especially in the last mile? Will NGN enable new forms of bottlenecks to emerge, especially in the upper layers of the network, perhaps as a result of new IMS capabilities? Regulators in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Japan and the United States have been forced to deal with these issues due to relatively rapid migration to NGNs proposed by their respective incumbent telecoms operators. Many of the same issues are also visible in the recommendations that the European Commission finalised on 13 November 2007 as part of the ongoing review of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications. In this paper, we compare and contrast the many regulatory proceedings that have been produced by these regulatory authorities.Regulation; Next Generation Networks; access network; core network; all-IP; competition; market power; international comparison

Regulatory Approaches to NGNs: An International Comparison

The emergence of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) raises profound challenges for regulators everywhere. Different regulatory authorities have approached these problems in strikingly different ways, depending in part on the overall regulatory milieu in which they operate, and in part on the nature of the NGN migration envisioned by major market players. Also, the NGN core network raises significantly different issues from those of the NGN access network. The migration to NGN raises many of the same issues that were already on the table as a result of the broader migration to IP-based services,notably in regard to the de-coupling of the service from the underlying network. To these concerns are added profound questions related to the nature of market power. Will NGNs enable new forms of competition? Will competitive bottlenecks remain, especially in the last mile? Will NGN enable new forms of bottlenecks to emerge, especially in the upper layers of the network, perhaps as a result of new IMS capabilities? Regulators in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Japan and the United States have been forced to deal with these issues due to relatively rapid migration to NGNs proposed by their respective incumbent telecoms operators. Many of the same issues are also visible in the recommendations that the European Commission finalised on 13 November 2007 as part of the ongoing review of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications. In this paper, we compare and contrast the many regulatory proceedings that have been produced by these regulatory authorities.Regulation; Next Generation Networks; access network; core network; all-IP; competition; market power; international comparison.

Long-term penetration and traffic forecasts for the Western European fixed broadband market

The objective with the paper is to describe, analyze and forecast the future fixed broadband penetration and traffic growth in NGN and NGA networks in Western Europe - one of the most advanced telecommunications areas in the world. Analyses show that the broadband penetrations are very well fitted by Logistic models. Here, extended Logistic four parameter models are used to develop broadband penetration forecasts 2011 - 2015. Separate forecasts are developed for DSL, HFC(Hybrid Fiber Coax), FTTx and FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) The traffic forecasts are developed per user in the busy hour. Hence, it is possible to assess the future fixed broadband busy hour traffic in NGA networks and also the accumulated busy hour traffic in NGN networks taking into account the fixed broadband penetration forecasts. --Fixed broadband,NGA,NGN,long-term forecasts,penetration,traffic

The Nature, Timing and Impact of Broadband Policies: a Panel Analysis of 30 OECD Countries

We empirically investigate the impact of a vast array of public policies on wireline broadband penetration through a novel and unique dataset covering 30 OECD countries, over 1995-2010. We find that while both supply and demand-side policies have a positive effect on broadband penetration, their relative impact depends on the actual stage of broadband diffusion. When an advanced stage is reached, only demand-side policies appear to generate a positive and increasing effect. Moreover, both technological and market competition play a positive role, and the effect of the latter shows a non-linear path along the stage of market development. Finally, the relative weight of the service sector in the national economy reveals to be crucial for broadband penetration. Our analysis provides new insights into the policy debate and in particular on the rationale of a selective policy design for broadband penetration and, in perspective, for the rollout of next-generation networks.telecommunications policies, broadband penetration, infrastructure investments

Broadband Technologies on Residential Acces

The diffusion of broadband technologies is a hot topic for developed and many developing countries. Although the provision of service has many similar aspects, the overall and specific penetration of broadband technologies varies significantly in these countries. This study aims to examine the place of users' perceptions in the broadband issue by studying the development of the selected technologies and national policies in the light of the general information technology diffusion aspects.Diffusion of Technology, Broadband Technologies, Development of National Policies and Pricing Issues

Analysis of broadband services diffusion in OECD 30 countries: Focusing on open access obligations

Deployment of broadband for everyone has become a major policy objective in many countries, including Japan and the U.S. Recently, the U.S. announced a National Broadband Plan which is aimed at providing 100 million households with access to 100 Mbps broadband services by 2020. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an empirical analysis to identify factors affecting broadband service diffusion in OECD 30 member countries. First, considering the ratios by broadband technologies, we categorize major countries into CATV (BB) type, DSL type and FTTx type. Then, the paper postulates the following four hypotheses by an international comparison method: (1) initial conditions of Cable TV around year 2000 promote CATV (BB) diffusion; (2) open access obligations on copper subscriber lines affect DSL diffusion; and (3) relative connection speed of FTTx to DSL and (4) business strategy of operator for investment in FTTx influence FTTx diffusion. Finally, the paper empirically proves the above hypotheses by panel data model, which take care of the endogeneity problem using instrumental variable method. This analysis will provide an important basis for national broadband policy formulation in individual countries. --OECD,Broadband,FTTx,DSL,CATV (BB),open access obligations,unbundling,collocation,panel data analysis,instrumental variable method

Mobile Broadband Possibilities considering the Arrival of IEEE 802.16m & LTE with an Emphasis on South Asia

This paper intends to look deeper into finding an ideal mobile broadband solution. Special stress has been put in the South Asian region through some comparative analysis. Proving their competency in numerous aspects, WiMAX and LTE already have already made a strong position in telecommunication industry. Both WiMAX and LTE are 4G technologies designed to move data rather than voice having IP networks based on OFDM technology. So, they aren't like typical technological rivals as of GSM and CDMA. But still a gesture of hostility seems to outburst long before the stable commercial launch of LTE. In this paper various aspects of WiMAX and LTE for deployment have been analyzed. Again, we tried to make every possible consideration with respect to south Asia i.e. how mass people of this region may be benefited. As a result, it might be regarded as a good source in case of making major BWA deployment decisions in this region. Besides these, it also opens the path for further research and in depth thinking in this issue.Comment: IEEE Publication format, ISSN 1947 5500, http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis