It was another busy week here at Cisco! Check out the top news stories of the week.
This new feature addresses the issue of broadband as a basic right. Country by country issues vary, but how can access be achieved? Do you think countries should make broadband access a basic right?
Tags: announcements, broadband, data center, the network, video
By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist
Late in September, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technologies (ICT), wrapped up its 11th Global Symposium for Regulators in Armenia City, Colombia. The meeting is a periodic forum designed to help national regulatory authorities exchange information about deploying broadband technology within their own countries and internationally.
The topics discussed among the more than 500 participants went beyond broadband services, however, touching upon other regulatory issues such as mobile payments and e-waste. Many of the presenters’ conclusions correlate to the conclusions reached in other Connected Life Exchange posts — that is, that for international broadband deployment to succeed, there needs to be a concerted effort on multiple fronts, including governments, service providers, vendors, and local business leaders.
Tags: broadband, digital economy, ICT, ITU, open access, outcomes, policy, regulation
If you read the trade press, service provider video business models are under assault. IPTV operators are challenged by the high cost of video services, while traditional pay-TV operators are seeing growing OTT traffic threatening their cost and revenue structures. Amidst all this, ACG Research recently reported that the service provider video infrastructure market grew 4.5% sequentially in Q2 2011, to $3.5 billion. According to ACG, Cisco grew its market leadership position in the overall service provider video infrastructure market to 41.9%, added three share points in the CMTS market to 65.8%, and gained a commanding 34.6% share in the IPTV set top box market.
What’s contributing to this growth? Two factors: an evolving understanding of video, and an appreciation of the shifting composition of network traffic. Read More »
Tags: ACG Research, broadband, cmts, IPTV, Service Provider, stb, video
The message from leaders across rural America is clear — they want broadband access to the internet, and they’re hoping that by raising the awareness of their common cause they’ll see some near-term progress towards that goal (helping to fuel new job creation).
Howard’s prior editorial entitled “Can Broadband Reshape Rural Development” seemed to trigger some spirited commentary. But that’s not surprising, when you consider how well organized and vocal the rural stakeholder groups have been in the past.
Tags: broadband, economic development, employment, jobs, rural, Service Provider
By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist
Before he was the chairman of George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, Michael Boskin was my Econ 101 professor. It was from him that I learned about microeconomics, macroeconomics, and their famed multiplier effect — the latter being the theory that money spent creates economic benefits that have ongoing impact beyond the original investment.
In my previous post, Stimulating Economic Growth with Broadband, I talked about quantifying the benefits in terms of what businesses could expect — in essence, the microeconomic view.
Today, looking at a report from Deloitte on 4G deployment within the U.S. market (with applicability anywhere in the world), I’m turning to the more wide-ranging impacts that wireless broadband investment might have for business and the economy — essentially, the multiplier effect of broadband infrastructure investment.
Tags: broadband, global networked economy, macroeconomics, microeconomics, wireless
