2010 Buyers Guide - Broadband Properties

assigned little of the positive predicted
impact to direct economic growth, however.
It calculated that
• The 1.6 million children in digitally
excluded families could increase
their lifetime earnings by £10.8 billion
(about $20 billion – by far the
largest impact).
• Digitally excluded households are
missing out on average savings of
£560 million (close to $1 billion) per
year from shopping and paying bills
online.
• The most economically disadvantaged
families are missing out on savings of
over £1 billion (roughly $2 billion) in
the prices of items they buy.
• Unemployed adults who get online
for training or job search – or almost
anything else – could increase their
lifetime earnings by over £12,000
each (about $20,000, a surprisingly
small amount).
• If 3.5 percent of the digitally excluded
unemployed could find work by using
employment Web sites, the U.K.
economy would grow by an estimated
£560 million (close to $1 billion).
• Internet-savvy workers can increase
their lifetime earnings by an average
of over £8,000 ($13,500).
• Government could save at least £900
million ($1.5 billion) a year in customer
contact costs if all digitally excluded
adults got online and made just
one electronic contact per month.
Wyatt said, “We don’t have enough
trained volunteers to reach the 4 million
families who are not online. We are
thinking of giving them a netbook and
a free connection [to the Internet] for a
year.” But even that might not work. The
educational outreach centers in the U.K.
are often in pubs and village halls, Wyatt
said, and “many of the 4 million not online
cannot read and write.”
Framework for assessing economic benefits of greater digital inclusion in the U.K.
FRANCE SEES GOVERNMENT
FUNDS NECESSARY
Bernard Benhamou, ministerial delegate
on Internet usage for France’s Ministry
of Higher Education and Research and
the State Secretariat for Digital Economy,
said that inclusion is a European
priority. In France, he said, 96 percent
of connected people use broadband. Although
mobile phones are changing the
way users – especially new users – use
the Internet, the potential for economic
growth justifies government involvement
in FTTH. “Fiber optics in France is supposed
to cost 40 billion euros [about $60
billion, or about $3,000 per household],
so the market cannot do all of this.”
Benhamou said the government is
“working on the next evolution of the
Internet to be used by objects – not
just phones, computers and televisions.”
Little of that effort, if any, is reflected
in estimates of future economic benefits,
he said.
Benhamou also noted that in Europe,
there is “more planning for smart metering,
more work with smaller enterprises
to conserve energy.” That, in turn, leads
to higher calculations of economic benefit
for broadband network connections.
Singapore and Beyond
Andrew J. Haire, deputy director general
(for telecoms and post) for Singapore’s
Infocomm Development Authority, said
that when he arrived in Singapore about
10 years ago, interest in network infrastructure
development was huge. As late
as 2004, however, broadband in Singapore
meant mainly DOCSIS – “and we
knew it would be outstripped,” he said.
“But about five years ago, [interest
shifted] to services … and we are now a
service-oriented market.” Singapore has
November/December 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 57