broadband strategies handbook.pdf - Khazar University

Box 6.7: Colombia’s 2010 Plan V ive DigitalIn Colombia, the 2010 Plan Vive Digital is setto establish a digital ecosystem by 2014 thatencompasses supply (infrastructure) and demand(users, services, and applications).With respect to the latter, the plan seeks tomake broadband more attractive to usersand businesses in several ways:• Have all national government entities andhalf of local government entities provideservices online• Support the development of applicationsfor micro, small, and medium enterprisesand enable half to use the Internet• Assist the consolidation of the informationtechnology and business processoutsourcing industry• Triple revenues for the creative digital industries• Create mechanisms for public and privatefinancial leverage for Colombian companiesthat develop applications and content• Strengthen national and regional publicbroadcasting services incorporating theuse of ICT.Source: Colombia, Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones, “Vive Digital Colombia,”http://vivedigital.gov.co/.costs and lead to better health outcomes. A 2010 ITU discussion paperargues that citizens in rural areas, as well as those with limited mobility,will be able to use e-health to access specialized care that previously wasnot available to them (Hernandez, Leza, and Ballot-Lena 2010, 4). Forexample, broadband capabilities are essential to medical evaluation andother medical applications that use imaging extensively. High-definitionvideo consultations allow rural patients and immobile patients (for example,incarcerated individuals or nursing home residents) to be seen by specialistsin a timely manner when urgent diagnosis is needed and thespecialists are not able to travel to where the patients are located. Othere-health services and applications include digital patient records; remotemonitoring, where caregivers monitor key vital signs from a remote location,such as for diabetes or congestive heart failure patients; and access tomedical information materials and advice. 31With the explosion of mobile devices in low-income nations and therelative lack of wireline broadband penetration, mobile health (m-health)is establishing a new frontier in health care in those countries. 32 Althoughbasic voice and data connections are useful to improving health and medicalcare, broadband connectivity is necessary to realize the full potentialof e-health and m-health services, particularly in rural communities.276 Broadband Strategies Handbook