Sharing Success Stories, Challenges, General Discussions

Federal government launches study of broadband across Canada

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:32:30 GMT

by Rob McMahon.

The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology began its study of broadband and Internet access across Canada, with Canadian Chamber of Commerce Director of Intellectual Property and Innovation Policy Scott Smith appearing before the committee.

According to this article in the introduction to his testimony, Scott Smith observed:

Canadian business is not online and this is despite the fact that Canada has some of the most advanced and available telecommunications infrastructure in the world...So the story I want to tell you is one of adoption, or lack of adoption, not about barriers to access. With our relatively small population in a huge land mass, the Canadian market is essentially California with a distribution challenge. Yet Canadians continue to be among the first users in the world to benefit from next generation network.

Read the full text of Scott Smith's testimony here.

Here is a reference Smith makes to remote/rural access:

In northern and remote communities where other infrastructure projects lack the market forces necessary to implement, the productivity growth potential of broadband telecommunications offers a model of how government might work with the private sector to meet public policy goals for infrastructure by providing sustainable incentives and public-private partnership options in remote areas.

Among Smith's recommendations are the following (cut n' pasted from here):

The government should accelerate investments in next-generation networks by amending tax policies to stimulate investments on a geographically and technologically neutral basis.

The federal government should continue to rely on private sector investment and competitive market forces to drive the rollout of broadband networks and facilities in Canada.

The government should ensure that any initiatives designed to help facilitate access to broadband facilities in Canada and by Canadians in rural and remote areas, where market forces are not sufficient, are introduced in the least market-distorting manner possible by working with relevant not-for-profit organizations, utilities, and service providers.

Commentary following this testimony is available here.

The website for the study (not yet available) is here.

Federal Communications Commission's Office of Native Affairs and Policy releases its 2012 Annual Report

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:21:00 GMT

by Rob McMahon.

The Office of Native Affairs and Policy (ONAP) is housed inside the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. According to the FCC's website:

"Our Office of Native Affairs and Policy promotes the deployment and adoption of communications services and technology throughout tribal lands and Native communities. ONAP consults and coordinates with American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, Native Hawaiian organizations and other Native and Tribal entities, and is the official FCC contact point for these activities. It also engages in work with FCC commissioners, bureaus and offices, as well as other government agencies, private organizations and the communications industries, to develop and implement related FCC policies. "

In March 2013, the ONAP released its 2012 Annual Report.

Read the ONAP Annual Report here
Read about the creation of ONAP here

Some background on the creation of ONAP from the FCC website:

"The creation of ONAP was one of the recommendations of the National Broadband Plan, which includes increasing access to Broadband in Indian Country as an important goal. There are 4.1 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and more than 565 federally recognized Tribes with their own unique political and tribal structures. There is minimal access to Broadband in Indian Country. The best evidence indicates that the broadband deployment rate on Tribal lands is less than 10 percent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that actual usage rates may be as low as 5 to 8 percent, compared to 65 percent nationwide."

First Mile indicators and tools

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:59:27 GMT

by Rob McMahon.

Please share your links, comments, and suggestions for First Mile tools and indicators. This includes links to blog posts, journal articles, reports, and news about assessing broadband adoption and impact. The focus is on community-level (as opposed to individual or household) indicators.

We hope this information will be helpful to communities interested in taking on First Mile development initiatives.

Name	Description	Link
International Journal of Communication. Broadband Adoption. Introduction: Defining and Measuring Meaningful Broadband Adoption	US-based. Critique narrow quantitative measures and argue for the need for more holistic indicators.	Here
10th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting (WTIM)	Bangkok, Thailand, from 25-27 September 2012. Hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) of Thailand. The meeting attracted around 300 participants from 70 Member States, 14 public and private organizations (including academia) and 13 regional and international organizations. The meeting focused on the following main topics: national coordination of ICT statistics; ICT infrastructure and access; revenue and investment; quality of service; data traffic; wireless broadband; digital broadcasting; the WSIS+10 review; e-commerce; ICT household access and individual ICT use; and gender and ICT indicators.	Link to final report
Measuring the Information Society (MIS) Report 2012	ITU’s two benchmarking tools to monitor information society developments worldwide: The ICT Development Index and the ICT Price Basket. The ICT Development Index (IDI) ranks 155 countries’ performance with regard to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and uptake. The ICT Price Basket (IPB) is a unique metric that tracks and compares the cost and affordability of ICT services in more than 160 countries globally. This year’s report proposes a new methodology to measure the global telecommunication capacity.	Report and key highlights
ICF Master Class: Building the Community of the 21st Century	ICF Master Class identifies what the 21st Century community needs to be globally competitive. It highlights obstacles and potential solutions. The class includes a session on 'Indicators for the Intelligent Community', which include how ICT factors link to community and economic development.	Link

Special issue of International Journal of Communication - Defining and Measuring Broadband Adoption

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:02:11 GMT

by Rob McMahon.

The latest issue of the International Journal of Communication features several articles on defining and measuring broadband adoption (beyond issues of quantitative diffusion).

To read, scroll down to ‘Special Section’ : http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc

These papers came out of one of the workshops hosted by the New America Foundation and Penn State University. The latest workshop, held Sept 2012, included participants from Native American broadband projects.

Follow-up Discussions from ICT Summit 2012

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:14:57 GMT

by Rob McMahon.

This space is for follow-up discussions from this year's ICT Summit 2012.