broadband strategies handbook.pdf - Khazar University

Germany (Tuan 2011). Wireline broadband has grown over 1,000 percentsince 2005, and, with 3.6 million subscriptions in 2010, it had the ninth largestnetwork among devel oping counties. Its wireline broadband penetrationis the sixth highest among lower-middle-income economies, with 4.4 subscriptionsper 100 people.Solid economic growth has coincided with increased broadband usage.This has been accompanied by opening of the economy, which has attractedinvestment from foreign capital. Liberalization of the telecommunicationssector has led to growing competition, with 11 enterprises providing infrastructure.Service providers have developed modern IP-based networkswith extensive fiber optic backbones. Incomes have risen so that more peoplecan afford broadband. This, in turn, has created a virtuous circle, withexplosive demand creating a larger market, resulting in economies of scaleand lower prices. Another factor driving fixed broadband growth is thatVietnam was a latecomer to mobile broadband. Major mobile operators didnot launch their networks until 2009, with around 15 percent of mobile subscribershaving 3G capability toward the end of 2010.Despite these successes, Vietnam faces challenges in broadening broadbandaccess, particularly in rural areas, where some 70 percent of the populationresides. Young people in urban areas “live” with high-speed Internetaccess; however, less than 1 percent of rural households had any type ofInternet access in 2008.Most businesses are focused on using the Internet for basic needs suchas sending and receiving e-mail and finding information, while moreadvanced applications such as e-commerce are not used as widely.Despite rising Internet access in households, many users have yet toexploit broadband applications fully. Survey data indicate that a computer’sInternet connection in Vietnam is used to search for personal informationand serve children’s learning. The lack of relevant content andfragmented information are problems; a public information network witha unified portal, equipped with an automatic translation engine and richmultimedia content covering health, education, culture, and agriculture,is lacking.The cost of fiber optic access is only economical in new urban areas andfor large enterprises, so DSL remains the fixed broadband choice of households.But copper lines provide less quality than fiber, and it is difficult toupgrade the transmission capacity. At the same time, telecom enterpriseshave recently been focusing on developing mobile broadband to the detrimentof the fixed network.The large number of operators has led to overlap in investment in theaccess network. Interconnection is difficult because operators use aGlobal Footprints: Stories from and for the Developing World 329