Many politicians take as a given the fact that broadband is a necessity for economic development. Craig Settles in a piece in Government Technology considers the role of this is the round in the US and presents what he believes are surprising findings – ‘8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy (Opinion)’. The report is a review of the $ 7 billion dollar investment in the USA and what impact that has had to date.
One piece of advice is to evaluate the delivery medium with the community that will be using it, be it forms of cable or wireless, since there can be varying preferences. Another conclusion was the need to keep on fighting even if initial funding sources fail – some did and succeeded. A further piece of advice was that a fair proportion of rural respondents don’t expect ever to get sufficient capacity to affect economic development. I hope there’s more confidence in the UK than the 13% reported from the US.
The Great E-mancipator 