Broadband Expansion Research Articles

Arkansas producers value upload speed more than download speed for precision agriculture applications

While access to broadband services has increased in recent years, many agricultural producers remain without access or are served by an inadequate connection. As many precision agriculture applications rely on data transfer through broadband networks, the expansion of broadband into rural areas has become critical for farm modernization. This study recruited Arkansas agriculture producers to complete a choice experiment on their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a broadband connection. We examine factors influencing producers’ WTP for broadband upload and download speed using a conditional logit model. In the evaluation of WTP for broadband, producers were willing to pay on average $1.07 to $1.34 per Mbps (megabits per second) of upload speed, compared to $0.02 to $0.03 per Mbps of download speed. Producers also placed a premium on the reliability of the connection. These results suggest that producers value a symmetrical data flow for production operations to support precision agriculture applications.

Technology-induced trade shocks? Evidence from broadband expansion in France

In this paper, we document the presence of “technology-induced” trade in France between 1997 and 2007 and assess its impact on consumer welfare. We use the staggered roll-out of broadband internet to estimate its causal effect on the importing behavior of affected firms. Using an event-study design, we find that broadband expansion increases firm-level imports by around 25%. The effect on domestic sales is positive but smaller, suggesting that the impact on trade is not limited to a scale effect. We further find that the “sub-extensive” margin (number of products and sourcing countries per firm) is the main channel of adjustment. Finally, we develop a model where firms optimize over their import strategy which yields a sufficient statistics formula for the quantification of the effects of broadband on consumer welfare. Interpreted within this model, our reduced-form estimates imply that broadband internet reduced the consumer price index by 2.22% and that the import-channel, i.e. the enhanced access to foreign goods that is allowed by broadband, accounts for about 33% of that effect.

Assessment of the effect of broadband expansion on the economy reviewed

AbstractDespite consensus about the positive impact of broadband expansion on the economy, from an aggregate perspective, this impact does not seem to be homogeneous for the whole economy. By using a two‐way multivariate panel data model subjected to Bayesian estimation, this study aims to determine the effect of broadband expansion on Brazilian economic sectors. To account for regional differences, the sampled data were grouped into clusters (clustering) to spot municipalities with similar characteristics. The results indicate that the impact of broadband expansion is not positive for all sectors. Actually, it was positive in more dynamic and technology‐intensive sectors (e.g., industrial and service sectors) but negative for the agricultural sector.

How is the home office used by sales and marketing employees during and after the corona crisis?

Employers must offer home offices wherever possible. This is provided for by the Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance, which came into force in Germany on January 27th. The ordinance also contains protective measures for those employees whose presence in the company is essential. In addition, employees are not obliged to use home office. Employers must take appropriate measures to ensure equivalent protection for them and for employees who cannot work from home. Employers are obliged to offer home office unless there are compelling operational reasons to the contrary. In addition, there are other reasons why companies cannot offer a home office, e.g. the inadequate broadband expansion in rural regions and the lack of IT infrastructure in companies in which digitization is still in its infancy. The aim of this work is to find out how the employees in marketing and sales assess the efforts of their companies to offer home offices now and in the future. To this end, three hypotheses are made.

Digital development in a remote paradise

International exposure impacts your views on technology, design, consumption, and adoption, and sometimes technology is not even the direct solution. Building a digital ecosystem entails the right policy mix to support the expansion of mobile broadband coupled with complementary policies to boost affordability and digital skills for underserved groups.

Improving broadband policy design using market data: A general framework and an application to Brazil

Disparities in broadband access and use reduce the economic and social benefits of digital technology. Consequently, many countries are searching for effective solutions to narrow digital divides. This paper proposes a framework that can help to design more effective policies for the expansion of broadband. Building on research on the drivers of broadband investment, the model assists in delineating geographic areas where commercial operators are unlikely to provide service without additional incentives. Furthermore, it helps to identify policy instruments that increase the attractiveness of an area to investors. Such knowledge facilitates the design, prioritization, and targeting of supply-side and demand-side policy measures. The article utilizes data from the fixed broadband market in Brazil to demonstrate the potential uses and benefits of the approach. The model is flexible and can be tailored to other countries. It can help improve existing broadband policies and inform new approaches.

ІННОВАЦІЙНІ ПІДХОДИ ДО МОТИВАЦІЇ ПЕРСОНАЛУ АГРАРНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ В УМОВАХ ЦИФРОВІЗАЦІЇ

The article considers modern innovative approaches that are used by agricultural enterprises to motivate staff in modern business conditions. Most farmers understand the benefits of using digital technologies in agriculture. According to representative polls conducted by the Bitkom industry association in Berlin, almost 90 percent of all agricultural enterprises link digitization to more efficient use of resources. More than half of the companies surveyed already use digital applications, especially smart agricultural machinery and farm management software. The potential of the global market for digital products and business models is huge. The trend towards high-tech systems is growing rapidly. The main prerequisite for the transition to high-tech systems is the expansion of broadband, as well as Internet access. Digital applications and platforms can significantly change the way knowledge is processed, transmitted, accessed, and used. For farmers, digital programs provide decision-making opportunities that were previously impossible, which could potentially lead to drastic changes in personnel management. As the number of smart machines and sensor networks in enterprises grows, as data continues to grow, industrial relations become increasingly data-driven, raising critical questions about how digital agriculture will need new professionals, support decision-making, and interact with potential regimes, knowledge processing and potentially violate them. This has significant implications for the entire staff knowledge system, including the roles and capabilities of those who provide consulting services to farmers, as well as those responsible for data analysis, and the organizations and institutions that link and support their work. The realities of digitalization are such that in order to maintain their competitiveness in the labor market, a person must constantly learn, develop in various ways and acquire new skills. In the digital economy, competitive advantage will be given to those who are able to change quickly and adapt to dynamic living conditions and are able to think creatively and on a large scale. But in any case, the organization of the system of remuneration of personnel should be based on the predicted style of management, which involves the creation of flexible structures.

A retrospective study on the regional benefits and spillover effects of high-speed broadband networks: Evidence from German counties

This study aims to assess the economic benefits of high-speed broadband within and across neighboring counties in Germany. Utilizing a balanced panel dataset of 401 German counties with data from 2010 to 2015 as well as different panel estimation techniques, we find that an increase in average broadband speed has a significantly positive effect on regional GDP in the average German county. Furthermore, we find that broadband deployment in German counties induces not only substantial economic benefits in terms of direct effects within counties but also positive regional externalities across counties. According to our estimation results, an increase in average bandwidth speed by one unit (1 Mbit/s) induces a rise in regional GDP of 0.18%. This effect is almost doubled if we also take regional externalities into account (0.31%). Moreover, we find that regional agglomeraton effects are of particular relevance for rural counties. Our cost-benefit analysis of subsidies based on conservative estimates suggests efficiency gains, as the total economic per capita benefits (€164) of subsidy programs to encourage broadband expansion exceeded their associated per capita costs (€114).

Population grid-based assessment of the impact of broadband expansion on population development in rural areas

This paper estimates the effect of the expansion of broadband infrastructure, which enables high-speed Internet, on population development in panel of Finnish areas in the period 2010–2018. The study differs from previous studies in that it uses accurate statistics on the availability of broadband in 1 km * 1 km population grids. Therefore, the impact of broadband availability on rural development is evaluated more accurately than previously. The results of the Difference-in-difference (DiD) regression analysis show that the availability of broadband reduces depopulation of remote and sparsely populated rural areas. In this respect, the telecommunication policy in Finland has been successful, and the findings encourage the expansion of broadband infrastructure in rural areas.

Fiber vs. vectoring: Limiting technology choices in broadband expansion

The upgrade of legacy infrastructure is a challenging undertaking in general. The underlying issues are especially prominent for telecommunications networks outside of urban areas. Using German micro-level data, we identify the structural determinants for fiber optics deployment and its extent. We also measure the role of technology competition from the existing infrastructures, VDSL-Vectoring and TV-Cable. In this setting and exploiting a natural experiment, a technologically restrictive policy as proposed by the European Commission is found to be ineffective in promoting fiber deployment. Policy interventions in the form of subsidies targeted at specific local infrastructure projects, however, raise the likelihood of fiber deployment by a substantial margin. A targeted, proactive policy approach is therefore needed to overcome structural and geographical disadvantages.

Get Information or Get in Formation: The Effects of High-Information Environments on Legislative Elections

How does the changing information environment affect the degree to which voters make independent decisions for different offices on their ballots? Leveraging the gradual roll-out of broadband internet across the United States and across congressional districts, this study uses within-district variation over four election cycles to examine the effects of internet access on voting behavior in US legislative elections. The results show that the expansion of broadband resulted in less split-ticket voting and a lower incumbency advantage because voters exposed to increased high-speed internet voted in a more partisan fashion. Consistent with work demonstrating the effect of the internet on local news consumption, the results suggest that the change in the information environment resulting from enhanced internet access led voters to prioritize national considerations over local considerations. This has important consequences for not only how voters act, but the resulting incentives that elected officials confront.

History of the development of telecommunications infrastructure in Japan

Japan has one of the most well-equipped telecommunications infrastructures in the world. The rich Japanese information environment is the result of a long telecommunications infrastructure construction process. This paper describes the historical process of the development of Japan’s telecommunications infrastructure from the introduction of telegraph technology in the late 19th century to the recent expansion of mobile broadband. From the early stage of the construction of telegraph networks, an efficient geographical configuration for Japan’s international telecommunications has been sought. First, a westward route to European countries was built at the beginning of telegraph services and then the eastward route connected directly to the United States was opened. During the construction of the international coaxial submarine cables after World War II, the combined use of the westward and eastward telecommunications routes similar to the early international telegraph networks was retained. In the early 2000s, ultra-high-speed trans-Pacific telecommunications networks were constructed corresponding to rapid expansion of Internet use. The main route of Japan’s international communications shifted to the eastward one. In contrast, the geographical configuration of the domestic telecommunications in Japan has been essentially unchanged. The domestic telegraph networks had been steadily expanded from the large metropolises to local cities from the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century. Even the recent optical fiber networks maintain a similar configuration. Although new broadband services, e.g., DSL, optical fiber and mobile telecommunications, were installed corresponding to the expansion of Internet use, the geographical configuration of domestic telecommunications networks has been kept.

Towards energy efficiency and green network infrastructure deployment in Nepal using software defined IPv6 network paradigm

AbstractThe use of information and communication technology (ICT) has resulted in significant impacts on social welfare, economic growth, transparency, and good governance in developing countries like Nepal. Due to the diverse geographic and economic situations, ICT network and service expansions throughout Nepal have been becoming quite challenging. Private network operators mostly have confined their services to urban areas. Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) collects 2% royalty form Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Operators as Rural Telecommunications Disbursement Fund (RTDF) to enhance ICT services to rural Nepal. Broadband expansion projects initiated by utilizing RTDF to expand ICT infrastructure throughout Nepal are expected to have considerable societal and economical transformations in the rural communities of Nepal. This paper not only presents the current ICT deployment scenario of Nepal but also studies design, analysis, and evaluation of green networking that leverages both software defined networking (SDN), and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)—aka Software Defined IPv6 (SoDIP6)—for energy efficient networking, robust services, and sustainable ICT ecosystem for developing nations like Nepal. We evaluate the SoDIP6 network by considering a typical ISP with end access networks and present benefits and recommendations. Experimental results show that the proposed SoDIP6 network help significantly reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint leading to overall economic benefits to service providers and the society. Furthermore, energy‐saving practices through SoDIP6 networks and some policy directions to the government to focus on green networking considering sensitivity of climate change and global warming impact in the mountainous and developing countries like Nepal are presented.

Predicting Broadband Expansion: An Analysis of Geographic and Demographic Influences

High-speed Internet access (’broadband’) is available nearly everywhere in urban and suburban parts of the contiguous U.S. However, there are many rural areas which do not have broadband access yet. We implemented a machine learning framework consisting of multiple supervised models for accurately predicting broadband expansion using geographic and demographic data on a census block group level. We then utilized these models to gain an understanding of how these features relate to broadband expansion. Also, we discussed how this data must be considered differently when investigating unsubsidized broadband expansion rather than government subsidized expansion. Understanding relationships between geographic and demographic features with respect to broadband speed and accessibility is reliant upon publicly available data provided by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), United States Census Bureau, and the Universal Service Administrative Company. The project included identifying, cleaning, and aggregating the data as well as creating a cloud-based-storage infrastructure with Google BigQuery. We found that by considering geographic and demographic data, effective models can be constructed to both understand previous broadband expansion and predict future expansion. Notably, we found that road, housing and population density, winter temperature, and elevation are of significant importance in determining whether an area receives broadband.

Broadband internet availability and establishments\u2019 employment growth in Germany: evidence from instrumental variables estimations

This study investigates the effect of broadband internet availability on German establishments’ employment growth. The database used is a random sample of business establishments, augmented by the local availability of broadband. The observation period is 2005–2010, when broadband was introduced in rural regions of Western Germany and in large parts of Eastern Germany. For the Western German subsample, technical frictions in broadband rollout are exploited to obtain exogenous variation in broadband availability. The findings indicate a negative (albeit not very robust) employment growth effect of broadband availability for Western German manufacturers, and a robustly positive effect for Western German service establishments, including most knowledge-intensive industries. For Eastern Germany, a similar identification strategy is potentially available, but turns out invalid in this particular setting. An alternative identification approach (a long difference model) indicates positive employment growth effects in both sectors for Eastern Germany. Overall, the findings suggest that broadband expansion has helped create jobs in firms which use broadband intensely.

Technology-Induced Trade Shocks? Evidence from Broadband Expansion in France

In this paper, we document the presence of technology-induced trade in France between 1997 and 2007 and assess its impact on consumer welfare. We use the staggered roll-out of broadband internet to estimate its causal effect on the importing behavior of affected firms. Using an event-study design, we find that broadband expansion increases firm-level imports by around 25%. We further find that the sub-extensive margin (number of products and sourcing countries per firm) is the main channel of adjustment and that the effect is larger for capital goods. Finally, we develop a model where firms optimize over their import strategy and which yields a sufficient statistics formula for the quantification of the effects of broadband on consumer welfare. Interpreted within this model, our reduced-form estimates imply that broadband internet reduced the consumer price index by 1.7% and that the import-channel, i.e. the enhanced access to foreign goods that is allowed by broadband, accounts for a quarter of that effect.

A Retrospective Study on the Regional Benefits and Spillover Effects of High-Speed Broadband Networks: Evidence from German Counties

There is still hardly any empirical evidence on how divergent broadband technologies, and, by extension, bandwidth levels, influence GDP growth, or on the extent of spatial externalities at a regional level. Our study aims to assess the economic benefits of high-speed broadband networks within and across neighbouring counties in Germany. Utilizing a balanced panel dataset of 401 German counties with data from 2010-2015 as well as different panel estimation techniques, we find that the availability of high-speed broadband (which enables transfer rates of 50 Mbit/sec and higher) has a small but significant positive effect on regional GDP growth in the average German county, when compared to normal broadband availability. Furthermore, we find that broadband deployment in German counties induces substantial economic benefits in terms of direct effects and regional externalities. According to our main estimation results, an increase in bandwidth coverage of 50 Mbit/sec and higher by one percentage point induces a rise in regional GDP of 0.05%. This effect is almost doubled if we also take regional externalities into account and is of particular relevance for urban counties. Furthermore, our cost-benefit analysis suggests substantial efficiency gains, as the total economic benefits of subsidy programs to encourage broadband expansion substantially exceeded their associated costs.

5 G wireless telecommunications expansion: Public health and environmental implications

The popularity, widespread use and increasing dependency on wireless technologies has spawned a telecommunications industrial revolution with increasing public exposure to broader and higher frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit data through a variety of devices and infrastructure. On the horizon, a new generation of even shorter high frequency 5G wavelengths is being proposed to power the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT promises us convenient and easy lifestyles with a massive 5G interconnected telecommunications network, however, the expansion of broadband with shorter wavelength radiofrequency radiation highlights the concern that health and safety issues remain unknown. Controversy continues with regards to harm from current 2G, 3G and 4G wireless technologies. 5G technologies are far less studied for human or environmental effects.It is argued that the addition of this added high frequency 5G radiation to an already complex mix of lower frequencies, will contribute to a negative public health outcome both from both physical and mental health perspectives.Radiofrequency radiation (RF) is increasingly being recognized as a new form of environmental pollution. Like other common toxic exposures, the effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF EMR) will be problematic if not impossible to sort out epidemiologically as there no longer remains an unexposed control group. This is especially important considering these effects are likely magnified by synergistic toxic exposures and other common health risk behaviors. Effects can also be non-linear. Because this is the first generation to have cradle-to-grave lifespan exposure to this level of man-made microwave (RF EMR) radiofrequencies, it will be years or decades before the true health consequences are known. Precaution in the roll out of this new technology is strongly indicated.This article will review relevant electromagnetic frequencies, exposure standards and current scientific literature on the health implications of 2G, 3G, 4G exposure, including some of the available literature on 5G frequencies. The question of what constitutes a public health issue will be raised, as well as the need for a precautionary approach in advancing new wireless technologies.

A Comparative Analysis of Selected National and Regional Investment Initiatives That Seek to Achieve Broadband Expansion by Deploying NGA Networks

Abstract Expectations about higher economic growth and the ever-increasing demand for higher bandwidth are driving the worldwide deployment of Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks. The paths followed to achieve this goal markedly vary, however, across different countries. This article offers a comparison of a handful of leading NGA deployments that rely on different investment models. We study the broadband national initiatives of New Zealand and Australia and a group of selected regional NGA deployments in Europe. While New Zealand's approach partially relies on a public–private partnership model of investment, Australia's National Broadband Network is a wholly government-funded initiative and the European local initiatives in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal use a range of mixed models of investment. We use a common technology–policy–market framework that allows for a clear mapping of the incentives, goals, and actions of those involved in network deployment. Our main interest is the identification of the drivers for investment as well as the description of main risk factors in each case. By applying this framework to those selected deployment cases our work draws relevant conclusions about the impact of investment decisions on performance criteria such as coverage and uptake.

A Comparative Analysis of Selected National and Regional Investment Initiatives That Seek to Achieve Broadband Expansion by Deploying NGA Networks

Abstract Expectations about higher economic growth and the ever-increasing demand for higher bandwidth are driving the worldwide deployment of Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks. The paths followed to achieve this goal markedly vary, however, across different countries. This article offers a comparison of a handful of leading NGA deployments that rely on different investment models. We study the broadband national initiatives of New Zealand and Australia and a group of selected regional NGA deployments in Europe. While New Zealand's approach partially relies on a public–private partnership model of investment, Australia's National Broadband Network is a wholly government-funded initiative and the European local initiatives in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal use a range of mixed models of investment. We use a common technology–policy–market framework that allows for a clear mapping of the incentives, goals, and actions of those involved in network deployment. Our main interest is the identification of the drivers for investment as well as the description of main risk factors in each case. By applying this framework to those selected deployment cases our work draws relevant conclusions about the impact of investment decisions on performance criteria such as coverage and uptake.