High-Speed Broadband - Essay Example

High Speed broadband, is it really the worth the expense to the public purse? College: Introduction Adoption of high-speed broadband is one of the most vital progressive moves that are being undertaken by governments of many countries in the 21st century. High-speed broadband refers to a signal of telecommunication precisely internet that has a larger bandwidth, or in simple terms internet that can be accessed at a high speed. Internet is one of the most incredible phenomenon of the modern world, which has undergone numerous revolutions before the current high speed that people enjoy and use to send information in a blink of an eye. Bandwidth speed was initially very slow to a point that it was expressed in bps, later changed to Kbps. Currently; bandwidth speed is expressed in Mbps and Gbps though Gbps is only available only in a few countries that have fully embraced high-speed internet (Crandall, Alleman, and AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, 2012, p.45). However, the big question remains to be, is high-speed internet/broadband an investment worth taking? A number of countries have fully embraced the need for a high-speed broadband in various parts of the world with other countries like Australia still having plans of implementing it in what is known as the National Broadband Network (NBN). However, the Australian government has been facing difficult moments as lobby groups; opposition, critics, and a significant percentage of the population strongly oppose the project that is estimated to cost more than $43 billion. Much of this opposition is arising from the fact that the government has failed to convince or fully sell the idea to the citizens. Most of the detractors are reasoning on bases of the cost that the NBN project is likely to take rather than the short time and longtime benefits that may result from the project. High-speed broadband has numerous benefits that can be accrued both in the short and in the long terms. Escalation of cross-border trade in the IT-enabled services (ITES) and IT services is one of the key benefits that the country is likely to enjoy (Shelly and Vermaat, 2010, p.104). IT experts estimates that the IT services as well as ITES market figures ranges between $US475 billion and $US700-800 billion respectively. Nonetheless, the country has not yet been able to tap a significant pie of this incredible opportunity as researches show that the country is currently managing to tap less than 15 percent of the market. Experts also suggest that the market has a very huge potential of future growth especially if the country can fully embrace high-speed broadband/internet (Zhu and Kwong, 2008, p.1398). However, it is very unfortunate that government critics cannot learn from the facts presented from other countries that have fully embraced high-speed broadband internet. For instance, some of the emerging economies like Costa Rica, Philippines, China, and India just to mention a few have greatly benefited from this market as a result of high-speed broadband. India’s software exports have been on a drastic increase with World Bank sources indicating that it was more than $US32 billions by the year 2007 (Jinno, Kozicki and Matsuoka, 2009, p.69). Moreover, the industry has employed more than 1.6 million people with the figures being far much higher in countries like China. Another major benefit that the country is likely to enjoy is the reduction of emissions, transport, and energy costs. High-speed internet will improve the current level of digitalized economy that involves doing business online. It will enable more people to be doing online transaction whose benefits are unlimited ranging from creation of jobs, reducing the amount of energy used on transport, and significantly reducing carbon emission among other fantastic benefits (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2012, p.95). The US city of Seattle for instance reports a possibility of saving more than $US1 billion annually from the investment in fibre-to-the-node network among other forms of high-speed internet (In Taylor and In Schejter, 2013, p.55). Much of these saving are arising from the high cost incurred during transportation of goods, conserving the environment since e-business is not harmful to the environment as well as the electricity cost. This means that Australia can save much more cost especially considering the fact that this is a cost saved in a single small city. High-speed broadband will significantly promote growth of regional centers. The Australian government has been investing a lot in promoting Regional Centers of Excellence primarily to stop migration of people to the big cities that are already overcrowded. A high-speed broadband network is therefore a crucial aspect that is likely to promote this brilliant move (McInnes, Saltman and Kidd, 2010, p.88). Most of the small cities even people in the rural areas end up draining all the best talents into the Australian major cities in search for employment and better lives, yet such an initiative can offer the country’s citizens immense opportunities irrespective of their geographical locations. Surely, why not invest in such an incredible project that would make people to be doing business from the comfort of their homes without necessarily travelling to the major cities (Butcher, Australia and New Zealand School of Government and ANU E Press, 2008, p.65). Economic growth is another element that cannot be overlooked while discussing the benefits of high-speed internet. The country has been benefiting a lot from online business as more businesses starts to make sales online. By the year 2009, Australia was deriving more than $123 billion from online business, which was an upsurge of about $42 billion from the previous study (In Taylor and In Schejter, 2013, p.79). This was achieved as more than 25,000 businesses started receiving orders over the Internet and thus tremendously increasing their annual turnovers. This signifies the huge potential of e-business especially while considering the fact that this results were achieved after only 27 percent of the business started doing online sales. Therefore, introduction of high speed is definitely going to make the situation much better. In addition, high-speed internet will make the country more competitive internationally. Internet is one of the platforms commonly being used in the modern world to market not only businesses, but also countries with respect to tourism among other aspects. Some of the countries that have understood the impact effective online marketing can make have heavily invested in high-speed internet projects. A good example of such a country is South Korea, which invested $70 billion into high-speed broadband in order to give the nation a global leading coverage (In Taylor and In Schejter, 2013, p.78). Over time, the investment has proven to be worth as effective internet is one of the key factors that have made the country a middle-income nation after a long history of economic desperation (Lee, OKeefe and Yun, 2010, p.88). In conclusion, high-speed internet has become a fundamental part of everyday life and an essential element for any rapid economic growth. Many governments have continuously invested in fast internet for they have understood the possible incredible benefits that a country can reap from such projects. However, the Australian government has been faced by a difficult moment in its attempt to implement fully a high-speed broadband project known as National Broadband Network (NBN) due to its failure to convince its detractors and the citizens in general about the possible benefits that they country may reap. High-speed internet has numerous benefits like giving a country an upper hand while competing in the global market, economic growth, promoting development of regional centers, increase in cross-border trade in the IT-enabled services (ITES) and IT services. Moreover, such an initiative would significantly reduce the costs incurred for transport, electricity and in managing the harm caused by carbon gases produced during transportation. In short, high-speed broadband is the way to go and the government should be unstoppable in implementing the National Broadband Network (NBN) among other projects that may accrue similar benefits. By considering the above-explained benefits, I believe this is an investment worth taking. Bibliography Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Butcher, J., Australia and New Zealand School of Government., & ANU E Press. 2008. Australia under construction: Nation-building : past, present and future. ANU E Press. Canberra, ACT, Australia. Crandall, R. W., Alleman, J. H., & AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. 2012. Broadband: Should we regulate high-speed internet access?AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. Washington, D.C. In Taylor, R. D., & In Schejter, A. M. 2013. Beyond broadband access: Developing data-based information policy strategies. ANU E Press. Canberra, ACT, Australia. Jinno, M., Kozicki, B. & Matsuoka, S. 2009. Spectrum-efficient and scalable elastic optical path network: architecture, benefits, and enabling technologies. Communications Magazine, IEEE, 47(11), 66-73. Lee, H., OKeefe, R. M., & Yun, K. (2003). The growth of broadband and electronic commerce in South Korea: contributing factors. The Information Society, 19(1), 81-93. McInnes, D. K., Saltman, D. C., & Kidd, M. R. (2010). General practitioners use of computers for prescribing and electronic health records: results from a national survey. Medical Journal of Australia, 185(2), 88. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2012. OECD internet economy outlook 2012. OECD. Paris. Shelly, G. B., & Vermaat, M. 2010. Discovering computers 2010: Living in a digital world. Course Technology/Cengage Learning. Boston, MA. Zhu, S., Lo, G. Q., & Kwong, D. L. 2008. Low-cost and high-speed SOI waveguide-based silicide Schottky-barrier MSM photodetectors for broadband optical communications. Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE, 20(16), 1396-1398. Read More