KEY ISSUES FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE G20

The amount of bandwidth produced domestically per country can be useful to indicate the development of
Internet-related infrastructure at large, including data centres, cloud services and more generally ICT services
(Figure 30). If Internet bandwidth is treated as a commodity, some countries will be net importers or net
exporters depending on their ability to satisfy domestic demand. In Germany, for example, a portion of the
bandwidth produced will be exported and consumed in neighbouring countries. Statistics gathered from IXPs,
however, do not reveal all data exchanged in a country. This is because many network operators have private
peering arrangements in addition to or instead of using the main switching fabric. Such is the case of the
United States, where many networks have established direct interconnections.
Gbps (logarihtmic scale)
100 000
10 000
1 000
100
10
1
Source: Packet Clearing House (2016).
While the system of Internet traffic exchange itself works well, and many G20 economies are relatively wellserved,
with the presence of multiple international routes and intense competition, other regions especially
those outside major international routes sometimes need public support for the deployment of backhaul
and international connectivity infrastructure. Once infrastructure is in place, countries must implement and
monitor open access policies to ensure that international connectivity routes, which often require significant
investment, are provided by a sufficient number of market players.
Spectrum is a scarce natural resource, which is essential for providing wireless services, among many other
things (e.g. broadcasting, aviation, defence). The allocation and use of spectrum is therefore tied up with
important social and economic trade-offs that need to be carefully considered. Due to the increase of mobile
voice and data traffic as well as the growing market for smartphones and smart devices, such as sensors and
RFID tags, the need for an efficient allocation of spectrum is becoming more acute. There are a number of
ways in which spectrum could be more efficiently managed to enable deployment of more and better highspeed
wireless services.
Spectrum inventories are an important tool for the governments and regulators that manage spectrum to
identify spectrum that is underused or could be potentially shared, or could be reallocated to different uses
(spectrum “refarming”). In carrying out these inventories, it is important to carefully evaluate the potential
uses of spectrum that will be released and balance multiple factors regarding investments, competition issues
and consumer choice before decisions are taken on defining the particular use of released spectrum.