2010 Buyers Guide - Broadband Properties

1101010010_THE_BANDWIDTH_HAWK_0101101011
Yes, Ultra-Bandwidth
Helps the Economy!
No economic model can prove (yet) that more bandwidth provides more
economic benefit. But common sense can.
By Steven S. Ross ■ Broadband Properties
This year’s annual economic development
issue coincides with the
Federal Communications Commission’s
effort to justify a greater government
role in bringing broadband to
more Americans – and teaching Americans
to use it. The National Broadband
Plan, required by last February’s stimulus
law, is due in February 2010.
Government must weigh costs
against benefits as best it can and measure
those costs and benefits against
other pressing uses for scarce resources.
Would you prefer broadband or better
health care?
Ultra-bandwidth advocates, including
me, assume there is little need for
detail about costs, benefits and competing
uses for bandwidth because the economic
payback for broadband in productivity,
new jobs and creation of entirely
new industries is immediate. That is, the
pie gets bigger no matter how you slice
it. Money makes money.
Besides, other countries are already
investing in broadband (as documented
in my report in this issue on a recent
conference at Columbia University).
Said FCC chief Julius Genachowski at
the FCC’s monthly meeting in November:
“This focus on broadband is a reflection
of a recognition that the U.S. is
lagging behind.”
By saying great detail is not needed,
I do not call for abandoning common
sense. At the Columbia conference,
policymakers worried that although
we know bandwidth is good, we do not
know for sure that a lot of bandwidth is
better. That’s because fiber to the home
About the Author
Write to the Hawk at steve@broadbandproperties.com.
has not been around long enough to
show a clear effect at the national level,
even though plenty of examples suggest
that FTTH attracts businesses locally.
But there’s better proof. Look what
happened in the last month alone:
• Cloud computing for the masses.
Google released the source code for
its Chrome OS. Instead of the operating
system’s having a browser, the
browser in Chrome OS is the operating
system. Most user data and
applications are encrypted and accessed
online. User devices depend
on networks for maximum utility,
even though they can operate off the
network – the small Linux-based OS
reinstalls on the user device at the
first hint of malware, too.
• More smart phones. Android, another
Linux-derived, open-source
Google product, has migrated from
a few phones available on the T-Mobile
network to Verizon and other
carriers. Smart phones put enormous
bandwidth demands on wireless
systems; thanks to the iPhone,
AT&T reports its data transmission
volume has increased 50-fold in just
two years.
• Comcast’s video acquisitions. The
cable provider moved to acquire content
from what were once broadcastoriented
networks, signaling a new
business model: Comcast is preparing
to move much of its content to
the Web, for a price.
Technical barriers still exist. Developers
for Android, for instance, complain
that the smart phones to which
they must tailor their apps vary in processor
speed, network speed, screen size
and color depth. Lightweight, cheap
(they’re talking $50) “smartbook” laptops
will add to the confusion. But I
usually travel with a pre-netbook Fujitsu
U810 laptop/tablet with a 1024 x 600,
6-inch screen and full (but tiny) keyboard.
I use it to take notes (it reads my
handwriting better than I can) and as a
phone (Skype, Vonage Softphone and
Google Talk).
Because its Vista OS takes seven
minutes to boot and four minutes to
shut down, and spends an enormous
amount of time updating itself, even a
limited Chrome OS would be a blessing.
I get the Wall Street Journal on paper,
but because I travel so much, I find myself
doing fully half my WSJ reading on
my year-old Android phone.
All this certainly improves my productivity.
I can edit images, and even video,
on the U810, and I can edit Microsoft
Office files on my phone. Yes, I have an
8.9-inch machine as well, and I crave an
even bigger screen in a lighter package.
In short, I want what only a ubiquitous,
speedy network can give – and the more,
the better. Don’t we all? BBP
6 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | November/December 2009