Offer Internet Services Research Articles

Integration of 5G, 6G and IoT with Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks: Opportunity, challenges and future trends

The rapid growth of the massive smart Internet of Things (IoT) with mobile connections, the enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and the high demand for building a connected and intelligent world increase the probability of mobile satellite systems to be a major network in providing internet communication services in the future. Currently, the mobile satellite systems are envisioned as a significant solution for providing mobile services in different settings and for various vital objectives. These satellite systems have special qualities in each of these situations, including extensive coverage area, robustness, and ability to broadcast/multicast. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) systems are the best promising technology that will offer internet services among the different types of satellite systems. However, the LEO systems are still experiencing certain restrictions with respect to connectivity, stability, and mobility support; because of which communication becomes unreliable. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to broadly explain the LEO systems and services in a comprehensive manner using a variety of perspectives. The paper focus is on key aspects of mobile internet based on satellite systems. This paper illustrates the integration of LEO systems with fifth and sixth generations of mobile cellular networks as well as with the IoT networks. It discusses the problems being faced as a result of the integration between cellular with IoT and satellite systems by comprehending which future research plans are outlined.

AN IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DATA CHALLENGES; DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMAN AND MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning and artificial intelligence produce algorithms that appear to be able to make "intelligent" decisions similar to those of humans but function differently from human thinking. To make decisions based on machine suggestions, humans should be able to understand the background of these suggestions. However, since humans are oriented to understand human intelligence, it is not yet fully clear whether humans can truly understand the "thinking" generated by machine learning, or whether they merely transfer human-like cognitive processes to machines. In addition, media representations of artificial intelligence show higher capabilities and greater human likeness than they currently have. In our daily lives, we increasingly encounter assistance systems that are designed to facilitate human tasks and decisions based on intelligent algorithms. These algorithms are predominantly based on machine learning technologies, which make it possible to discover previously unknown correlations and patterns by analyzing large amounts of data. One example is the machine analysis of thousands of X-ray images of sick and healthy people. This requires identifying the patterns by which images labeled as "healthy" can be distinguished from those labeled as "sick" and to find an algorithm that identifies the latter. In the meantime, "trained" algorithms created in this way are used in various fields of application, not only for medical diagnoses but also in the pre-selection of applicants for a job advertisement or in communication with the help of voice assistants. These voice assistants are enabled by intelligent algorithms to offer internet services through short commands. Harald Lesch, referring to his book Unpredictable, written together with Thomas Schwarz, says the development of artificial intelligence can be compared to bringing aliens to Earth. With machine learning, a previously unknown form of non-human intelligence has been created. This chapter discusses whether forms of artificial intelligence, as they are currently being publicly discussed, differ substantially from human thinking. Furthermore, it will be discussed to what extent humans can comprehend the functioning of artificial intelligence that has been created through machine learning when interacting with them. Finally, the risks and opportunities will be weighed and discussed..

WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTORS: THE EXAMPLE OF ARMENIA

Both worldwide and in Armenia, the telecommunications market is saturated. In order to understand the role of services offered by telecom operators, determine the availability of innovative technologies and identify problems that arise among subscribers, we conducted an anonymous sociological survey among the population of Armenia and also developed a system consisting of several indicators to measure the effectiveness of the sector. The results of the sociological survey prove once again that innovations and new technologies ensure customer loyalty. From the answers, it can be concluded that the reforms carried out in different years: the expansion of the network, the import of new technologies and their implementation contribute to the formation of loyal customers. To measure the effectiveness of the sector, the elasticity of various indicators in relation to each other was measured. As a result, the elasticity of real imports of innovative equipment in relation to real revenue is considered the most elastic of these indicators, which means that equipment imports are sensitive to a decrease in revenue. The results obtained indicate that the sector is in a fairly high degree of saturation, further growth of subscribers is accompanied by a decrease in revenue, since their attraction mainly occurs in the case of lower prices for the services provided. And the only way to be competitive is to provide new services by importing innovative equipment, especially by offering Internet services to consumers at affordable prices, thanks to increasing their loyalty.

DTN Architecture With Resource-Aware Rate Adaptation for Multiple Bundle Transmission in InterPlanetary Networks

The world of telecommunications, from some years, is revitalizing an high interest to Deep Space Communication (DSC) and Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) architecture as enabling technologies to offer internet services for aerospace vehicles or orbital stations. The communications between the planets in the solar system is well known to present a series of problems that need to be faced. The fundamental challenge with InterPlanetary Communication (IPC) is the intermittent Line of Sight (LoS) caused by planets movement and the significant propagation time. A possible way to face with it is the use of a DTN approach where routers use a store-and-forward transmission in a hop-by-hop message exchange mechanism. Thanks to this approach, it is possible to face many issues related to the transport layer. The main contribution of this work concerns the proposal of a bundle management layer able to assign at the receiver the appropriate bundle rate on the basis of concurrent bundle transmissions, the output link capacity and buffer resources. The proposed strategy can be integrated with a routing algorithm for InterPlanetary Networks (IPNs) and DTN networks. In our case we consider the Earliest Arrival Optimal Delivery Ratio (EAODR) routing that applies a modified temporal graph to select the IPN nodes. Performance evaluation have been led out to show the benefits of our proposal on the single links and also on the routing scheme in terms of bundle delivery ratio and average bundle delivery time.

A novel QoE based cross-layer scheduling scheme for video applications in 802.11 wireless LANs

In the past two decades, 802.11 based Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have gained popularity in offering Internet services and increasingly supporting data driven video streaming applications. Such services demand enhanced view quality to all the end-users in the network. However, due to the sharing of limited resources and lack of proper scheduling mechanisms, WLANs are unable to meet the requirements of numerous video users and provide them better quality. Therefore, an effective resource scheduling approach is needed that can achieve high user satisfaction for the ever changing user needs for quality video viewing. In this paper, a Quality of Experience based Cross-Layer Scheduling (QoECLS) scheme to enhance the user experience for video applications in WLANs is proposed. Here, the Mean Opinion Score has been used as a measure to evaluate the user experience. In order to provide the average user throughput with guarantee of fairness among users, the QoECLS scheme uses cross-layer information from the application and physical layer, respectively. The QoECLS algorithm allocates transmission resources by considering application feedback along with channel state information and buffer status. The performance of the QoECLS approach was extensively studied through simulations and the results showed an improvement in user experience and throughput, while maintaining fairness among the users. In terms of throughput, the proposed scheme achieves 25%, 45 %, and 50% improvement compared to QoE Aware Scheduling scheme, Modified-Largest Weighted Delay First scheduler and Exponential-Proportional Fair scheduler, respectively.

Performance evaluation of congestion aware transmission opportunity scheduling scheme for 802.11 wireless LANs

In the last two decades, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) based on 802.11 have become crucial in offering Internet services with high data transmission rates. Under crowded scenarios like airports, shopping centers, and stadiums, WLANs can be easily congested due to their random access nature and limited operational capability. This may result in a reduced user multimedia experience. With a proper Transmission Opportunity (TXOP) allocation and scheduling scheme, the user service quality could be improved under such scenarios. In this paper, a Congestion-Aware Transmission Opportunity (CA-TXOP) scheme is proposed, allocating transmission resources by considering network level congestion and information like buffer status, channel quality, and data rates. The CA-TXOP scheme prioritizes congested and noncongested user stations and improves the overall network performance. Simulation results show that the CA-TXOP scheme attained 45%, 35%, and 20% enhancement compared with Fixed, Bi-level, and FRA-TXOP scheduling schemes. Such scheme applies to future congested scenarios like smart buildings and organizations that require satisfying video quality to all the user stations.

Smart Use and Sustainable Architecture of Wi-Fi in a Metropolitan City: Dhaka

Internet has become one of the basic needs of people in this modern world. They need internet to know about any unknown topic, place and person, get online study materials, and stay connected with their near and dear ones via social networking sites and IP calling services. Due to the availability of internet in every handheld electronic devices, number of internet users are increasing day by day. Dhaka, being the capital and a major metropolitan city of Bangladesh, has most population density as well as most internet users. There are 4-5 major mobile telephone service providers in this city who also offer internet services. People choose different service providers considering different reasons, such as: area coverage, call rates, internet packages and their prices etc. Sometimes people are leaving their usual area and entering such an area where their mobile telephone service provider will not be able to provide services. Then they need to stop using the SIM card of that service provider and take a new one from others. This is not convenient for any customer of any mobile phone company. This situation can be avoided if all such service providers are agreed to share their networks with each other throughout the city. This will provide service to any customer of any service provider even when it do not have network in some areas. This sharing does not require much financial support as it will be using the existing networks and some new Wi-Fi devices to support growing number of users.

Internet Services for Communicating With the General Practice: Barely Noticed and Used by Patients.

BackgroundThe Netherlands is one of the frontrunners of eHealth in Europe. Many general practices offer Internet services, which can be used by patients to communicate with their general practice. In promoting and implementing such services, it is important to gain insight into patients’ actual use and intention toward using.ObjectiveThe objective of the study is to investigate the actual use and intention toward using Internet services to communicate with the general practice by the general practice population. The secondary objective is to study the factors and characteristics that influence their intention to use such services.MethodsThere were 1500 members of the Dutch Health Care Consumer Panel, age over 18 years, that were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study. People who had contacted their general practitioner at least once in the past year were included. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about the following services: Internet appointment planning, asking questions on the Internet, email reminders about appointments, Internet prescription refill requests, Internet access to medical data, and Internet video consultation. Participants indicated whether they had used these services in the past year, they would like to use them, and whether they thought their general practice had these services. For the first two services, participants rated items based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology complemented with additional constructs. These items were divided into six subscales: effort expectancy, performance expectancy, trust, attitude, facilitating conditions, and social influence.ResultsThere were 546 participants that were included in the analyses out of 593 who met the inclusion criteria. The participants had a mean age of 53 years (SD 15.4), 43.6% (n=238) were male, and 66.8% (n=365) had at least one chronic illness. Actual use of the services varied between 0% (n=0, video consultation) and 10.4% (n=57, requesting prescription refill by Internet). The proportion of participants with a positive intention to use the service varied between 14.7% (n=80, video consultation) and 48.7% (n=266, Internet access to medical data). For each service, approximately half indicated that they did not know whether the service was available. Univariate logistic regression analyses revealed that all the constructs as well as age, level of education, and Internet usage had a significant association with intention toward using Internet appointment planning and asking questions by Internet.ConclusionsInternet communication services to contact the general practice are not yet frequently used by this population. Although a substantial number of persons have a positive intention toward using such services, not all people who receive primary care seem willing to use them. The lack of awareness of the availability and functionality of such services might play an important role.

UNBUNDLING THE INCUMBENT: EVIDENCE FROM UK BROADBAND

We consider the impact of a regulatory process forcing an incumbent telecom operator to make its local broadband network available to other companies (local loop unbundling, or LLU). Entrants are then able to upgrade their individual lines and offer Internet services directly to customers. Employing a very detailed data set covering the whole of the United Kingdom, we find that, over the course of time, many entrants have begun to take advantage of unbundling. LLU entry only had a positive effect on broadband penetration in the early years, and no longer in the recent years as the market reached maturity. In contrast, LLU entry continues to have a positive impact on the quality of the service provided, as entrants differentiate their products upwards compared to the incumbent. We also assess the impact of competition from an alternative form of technology (cable) which is not subject to regulation, and what we discover is that inter-platform competition has a positive impact on both penetration and quality.

Unbundling the Incumbent: Evidence from UK Broadband

We consider the impact of a regulatory process forcing an incumbent telecom operator to make its local broadband network available to other companies (local loop unbundling, or LLU). Entrants are then able to upgrade their individual lines and offer Internet services directly to customers. Employing a very detailed dataset covering the whole of the UK, we find that, over the course of time, many entrants have begun to take advantage of unbundling. LLU entry only had a positive effect on broadband penetration in the early years, and no longer in the recent years as the market reached maturity. In contrast, LLU entry continues to have a positive impact on the quality of the service provided, as entrants differentiate their products upwards compared to the incumbent. We also assess the impact of competition from an alternative form of technology (cable) which is not subject to regulation, and what we discover is that inter-platform competition has a positive impact on both penetration and quality.

Insights in the cost of continuous broadband Internet on trains for multi-service deployments by multiple actors with resource sharing

The economic viability of broadband Internet services on trains has always been proved difficult, mainly due to a high investment cost and low willingness to pay by train passengers, but also due to unused opportunities such as non-passenger services (e.g. train performance monitoring, crew services) and optimization of the resources consumed to offer Internet services. Evaluating opportunities to improve the return on investment is therefore essential towards profitability of the business case. By efficiently sharing resources amongst services, costs can be pooled over several services in order to reduce the investment cost per service. Current techno-economic evaluation models are hard to apply to cost allocation in a multi-service deployment with multiple actors and resource sharing. We therefore propose a new evaluation model and apply it to a deployment of Internet services on trains. We start with a detailed analysis of the technical architecture required to provide Internet access on trains. For each component, we investigate the impact by the different services on resource consumption. The proposed techno-economic evaluation model is then applied in order to calculate the total cost and allocate the used and unused resources to the appropriate services. In a final step, we calculate the business case for each stakeholder involved in the offering of these services. This paper details the proposed model and reports on our findings for a multi-service deployment by multiple actors. Results show important benefits for the case that considers the application of resource sharing in a multi-service, multi-actor scenario and the proposed model produces insights in the contributors to the cost per service and the unused amount of a resource. In addition, ex-ante insights in the cost flows per involved actor are obtained and the model can easily be extended to include revenue flows to evaluate the profitability per actor. As a consequence, the proposed model should be considered to support and stimulate upcoming multi-actor investment decisions for Internet-based multi-service offerings on-board trains with resource sharing.

Inquiry into the Use of Google and Yahoo Search Engines in Retrieving Web Resources by Internet Users in Nigeria

This paper investigated the use of Google and Yahoo search engines in retrieving relevant information resources by Nigerian internet users. It was found that Nigerians prefer the search services of Google to Yahoo. This is because with Google search engine, they are able to retrieve the exact information that they need; they obtain more relevant and adequate information resources than Yahoo; Google is easier to use than Yahoo; and Google retrieves faster than Yahoo. Most Nigerian internet users have personal access through their mobile devices such as mobile phones, lap tops, palm tops etc. It was therefore recommended that Google should incorporate more Nigerian content to their knowledge base as most Nigerians depend on it to meet their information needs; while Telecommunication companies (such as Etisalat, MTN, Globacom, Airtel, Starcoms etc.) that offer internet services to Nigerians should make their services more efficient as they have emerged as the major internet service providers to Nigerians in the 21st century. Nigerian internet users are expected to continually up-date their search engine skills as more and more advances are made in the field of information retrieval.

SEGMENTASI PEMAKAIAN INTERNET BROADBAND MENURUT USIA, JENIS KELAMIN, PENDIDIKAN, SEKS DAN PROVIDER INTERNET

The intensity of usage and Internet users continues to increase along with the development of devices smartphones/PDAs (Personal Digital Assistance), e-commerce and social media. Internet traffic volume continues to rise encourage all providers to provide connections with a large transport capacity through technology broadband.Banyaknya number of operators and the growth of broadband Internet customers require mapping of the segment as a basis for marketing activities. Segmentation parse a heterogeneous market into homogeneous groups according to the elements of geography, demographics, behavior and psikografi.Dalam this survey, segmentation based on demographic factors with the variables age, sex (gender), education, monthly expenditure (SES) and internet service providers . Segmentation is done through a survey conducted in several big cities in Indonesia with the cluster sampling method. The survey results showed that the level of Internet usage between men and women are relatively equal, so the aspect of gender did not significantly affect the process of offering Internet services. While education and SES variables have positive correlation with the level of usage (usage) internet. Other findings showed that the category of heavy internet users (heavy users) are dominant, with a percentage> 50% in nearly all surveyed operators.

스펙트럼 센싱 기반 전력선 통신 시스템 구현

Today, Internet service is a most important Information Source. So, the Power Line Communication has been achieved to offer Internet service to Last-Mile area. But, Power Line is not suitable for communication, So, electromagnetic wave is generated from Power Line during flow of communication information. And the electromagnetic wave is interfered with Wireless Communication Service using the same frequency range. In this paper, the Notch Filter and the Spectrum Sensing technology are proposed to reduction of interference between Power Line Communication and Wireless Communication Service. The Spectrum Sensing technology is the core technology of the Cognitive Radio (CR) system. CR is the technology that temporarily allocates the frequency bandwidth by scanning surrounding wireless environments to keep licensed terminals and search the unused frequency bandwidth. The proposed emulator is implemented with Spectrum Sensing and Notch Filter system using Embedded Board.

Virtualizing and Scheduling Optical Network Infrastructure for Emerging IT Services [Invited

Emerging IT service providers that aim at delivering supercomputing power available to the masses over the Internet rely on high-performance IT resources interconnected with ultra-high-performance optical networks. To adjust the provisioning of the resources to end-user demand variations, new infrastructure capabilities have to be supported. These capabilities have to take into account the business requirements of telecom networks. This paper proposes a service framework to offer Internet service providers dynamic access to extensible virtual private execution infrastructures, through on-demand and in-advance bandwidth and resource reservation services. This virtual infrastructure service concept is being studied in the CARRIOCAS project and implemented thanks to the scheduling, reconfiguration, and virtualization (SRV) component. This entity handles the service requests, aggregates them, and triggers the provisioning of different types of resources accordingly. We propose to adapt to envisioned heterogeneous needs by multiplexing rigid and flexible requests as well as coarse or fine demands. The goal is to optimize both resource provisioning and utility functions. Considering the options of advanced network bandwidth reservations and allocations, the optimization problem is formulated. The impacts of the malleability factor are studied by simulation to assess the gain.

OFDM 기반 전력선 통신을 위한 Notch Filter 설계

인터넷 서비스가 주 정보원으로 작용하는 정보화 시대에 인터넷 망이 닿지 않는 지역에 인터넷 서비스를 제공하기 위해 전력선 통신이 이루어지고 있다. 고속의 통신 서비스를 제공하기 위하여 현재 30MHz까지 할당된 주파수 대역을 80MHz로 확대하려는 연구도 이루어지고 있다. 하지만, 전력선은 통신 선로가 아니므로 통신 신호의 흐름에 따라 방사되는 전파가 발생하고, 그 전파는 기존에 그 대역을 사용하는 무선통신 서비스와 간섭이 발생하게 된다. 본 논문에서는 전력선 통신과 무선 통신 서비스의 상호 간섭을 줄이기 위해 ETSI에서 규정한 간섭 채널을 기준으로, 간섭 신호의 대역폭을 고려하여 3단, 8단의 동적 Notch Filter를 연산하였다. 또한, 간섭 채널에 Notch Filter를 적용하였고, 적용한 결과를 스펙트럼 및 BER 성능을 통하여 검증하였다. Today is the Information age which Internet service acts a most important Information Source. So A Power Line Communication has been achieved to offer Internet service for Last-Mile area. And Research is achieved to frequence range from 30MHz to 80MHz for High-speed communication service. But, Power Line is not suitable for communication, so, electric wave is generated from flow of communication information. And the electric wave is interfered with Wireless Communication Service using the same frequence range. In this paper, we calculated a 3 steps and 8 steps dynamic Notch Filter to consider the bandwidth of interference signals based on ETSI standard for reduce of interference between Power Line Communication and Wireless Communication Service. And we applied a Notch Filter and verified the application performance from Spectrum and BER.

Do Librarians Have an Ethical Duty to Monitor Patrons' Internet Usage in the Public Library?

IntroductionAfter the Supreme Court's decision that the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) (2000), which required school and public libraries to place filtering technology on all of their computers, was constitutional, public libraries have had to make the decision whether to filter Internet usage or forego federal funds. Although many libraries cannot afford to offer Internet service without the government money in the form of E-rate and LSTA funding which assists libraries in both purchasing computers and paying for Internet access, many libraries, such as the public facilities in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, have chosen not to filter, relying on local and state funding to maintain services.Many libraries are choosing to forego federal funds because they believe filtering is a form of censorship. Although public libraries, as a rule, do not collect print pornography for their patrons, and certainly no library can collect child pornography, no filtering software currently available is able to block only pornography and child pornography. Thus, libraries feel that the overblocking of nonpornographic websites results in censorship. This overblocking coupled with the fact that, despite the best efforts of filtering companies, some pornography may still get through the filter (underblocking), causes some libraries to dislike filtering. But, despite the law, what is a librarian's duty to children and to parents to make the library a safe place for all? Many children do not want to access pornography, but even if they do, their parents may not want them to have access to it. Librarians, as the gatekeepers of information, have a duty both to provide information to people of all ages, and to allow parents to make moral decisions for their children concerning the information they can access at what age. However, parents see the library as a place where their children may play and explore with minimal parental supervision. If librarians provide no supervision and parents are under the impression that they do, then children are placed in a position of being at risk perhaps through exposure to pornography through Internet searches they perform or through accidentally viewing pornography on another library patron's screen.Although much has been written concerning CIPA (2000), many articles have focused on the First Amendment rights of youth to access materials (Buss, 2004; Nist, 2004; Nunziato, 2004). The American Library Association (ALA) has created numerous documents, available on the World Wide Web, concerning its stance against filtering and how education is the key to protecting children from web pornography (American Library Association, 2004). Still, some have written about the impact of filters on their libraries (Auld, 2003; Eberhart, 2004) and one author has discussed the various roles that the court in United States v. American Library Association (2003) viewed librarians to assume (Ratzan, 2004). This article examines the role of a librarian as monitor of patrons' Internet usage in order to protect its young patrons from exposure to pornography and other materials harmful to minors.This article will explore the dilemma of what ethical duty a librarian owes to its young patrons. First, it will examine ALA's views on access to information and its stance against filtering. Second, it will look at the librarian's duty from the parents' perspective. Next, it will review how judges perceive the librarian's duty to patrons by looking at recent court cases such as United States v. American Library Association (2003) and Mainstream Loudoun v. Board of Trustees of the Loudoun County Library (1998). Fourth, it will examine how librarians feel about monitoring the Internet usage of children. Finally, it will attempt to balance the competing views. This article will particularly focus on whether or not a librarian should monitor a patron's Internet usage, and if so, whether this conflicts with the librarian's duty to provide information access to all patrons. …

A Dynamic Evaluation of Blockers to Risk-Taking and Growth and the Agent's Employment Cycle

This paper examines some of the implications that technological innovations have had on the retail side of the commercial banking industry in the recent decade. These innovations enabled financial institutions to overcome previous constraining blockages to growth and costs savings, such as geographic distances and volume processing obstacles but at the same time also removed many of the previous blockages that prevented competitors from invading their turf. The nature of such constraints (or blockages) has changed as technology changed, and the financial intermediation delivery has changed with it. Although this paper focuses on the innovations relevant to retail banking, many of the implications can be of interest to other aspects of the financial services industry outside the scope here. While enabling a greater variety of services and improved productivity, technology poses challenges to society since non-banks are often less regulated, compared to depository institutions. As noted in recent studies, despite the free spill-over of information, technology has the potential to increase monopolistic powers of institutions that develop advantages in the use of propriety information and technology. This paper reviews some recent innovations in the financial services industry that have a further potential role in the continuation of the transformation process. One needs to become familiar with them before one can proceed with further contemplation of the challenges that they pose to the banking and non-banking industries. This paper also addresses significant gaps in existing knowledge about the Internet banking landscape. Using information drawn from a survey of national bank examiners, it finds that as early as 5 years ago, while only 20 percent of national banks offered Internet banking in Q3 1999, these transactional Internet banks accounted for 84 percent of the total number of small deposit accounts. Today both numbers are already much higher. An estimated 45 percent of all national banks were offering Internet banking by the beginning of 2001, and today most already do. While most of the growth in new Internet banking was be due to small banks coming online, almost half of all national banks in 2001 had no plans to offer Internet services, while today the majority do. However, Internet was just a step and other products and service are emerging, and Banking institutions are becoming more challenged by those new competitors.

Some Implications from Technological Developments Affecting the Commercial Banking Business: What Happens When 'Blockers to Business' are Overcome

This paper examines some of the implications that technological innovations have had on the retail side of the commercial banking industry in the recent decade. These innovations enabled financial institutions to overcome previous constraining blockages to growth and costs savings, such as geographic distances and volume processing obstacles but at the same time also removed many of the previous blockages that prevented competitors from invading their turf. The nature of such constraints (or blockages) has changed as technology changed, and the financial intermediation delivery has changed with it. Although this paper focuses on the innovations relevant to retail banking, many of the implications can be of interest to other aspects of the financial services industry outside the scope here. While enabling a greater variety of services and improved productivity, technology poses challenges to society since non-banks are often less regulated, compared to depository institutions. As noted in recent studies, despite the free spill-over of information, technology has the potential to increase monopolistic powers of institutions that develop advantages in the use of propriety information and technology. This paper reviews some recent innovations in the financial services industry that have a further potential role in the continuation of the transformation process. One needs to become familiar with them before one can proceed with further contemplation of the challenges that they pose to the banking and non-banking industries. This paper also addresses significant gaps in existing knowledge about the Internet banking landscape. Using information drawn from a survey of national bank examiners, it finds that as early as 5 years ago, while only 20 percent of national banks offered Internet banking in Q3 1999, these transactional Internet banks accounted for 84 percent of the total number of small deposit accounts. Today both numbers are already much higher. An estimated 45 percent of all national banks were offering Internet banking by the beginning of 2001, and today most already do. While most of the growth in new Internet banking was be due to small banks coming online, almost half of all national banks in 2001 had no plans to offer Internet services, while today the majority do. However, Internet was just a step and other products and service are emerging, and Banking institutions are becoming more challenged by those new competitors. The paper's main contribution is its conceptualizing a theory of banking innovations in which technology sensitive assets can enhance and/or substitute non- technology sensitive assets (relationship sensitive assets for example) in way which recognizes the blocking (constraining) hurdles which the bank tries to overcomes when applying technology innovations.

Swiss Community Pharmacies' on the Web and Pharmacists' Experiences with E-commerce: Longitudinal study and Internet-based questionnaire survey

BackgroundThere are multiple ways in which community pharmacies can present themselves on the Internet, e.g., as a platform for drug information or as an advertising platform for their services.ObjectiveTo estimate the number of Swiss community pharmacies on the Internet over the period of 32 months (2000-2003), to describe their current e-commerce services, and to explore the experiences and plans these pharmacies have with regard to their Internet presence.MethodsA longitudinal study was performed to determine the number of Swiss German pharmacies on the Internet by conducting Internet searches in 2000, 2001, and 2003. In April 2002, a cross-sectional Internet-based survey was administered to explore the pharmacies' experiences and plans regarding their Web sites.ResultsAs of April 2003, 373 (44%) of 852 community pharmacies from the German speaking part of Switzerland were on the Internet. One hundred eighty four listed an e-mail address and were asked to complete a questionnaire. Of the 107 pharmacies answering the survey questions (58% response rate): 46% had been on the Internet for 1 to 2 years; 33% of the Web sites are part of a pharmacy group's Web portal; 31% of the pharmacies plan to expand their Internet appearance in the future; 74% provide e-commerce services, with 81% of those pharmacies filling five or less orders per month; and 12% plan on expanding their e-commerce services in the future.ConclusionsThe number of community pharmacies offering Internet services steadily increased over 32 months. Given the importance of the Internet as a tool for information, communication, and advertising for pharmacy products and services, it can be expected that the increase will continue. Pharmacy-group portals are important promoters of pharmacies on the Internet. For many community pharmacies, Internet portals that provide an Internet presence for the pharmacies and provide regularly-updated content (e.g., health news, tips, drug information) seem to be the most effective solutions. Even though 40% of the pharmacies already offer e-commerce services, these services are still of minor importance. For many pharmacists, the current legal regulations seem to be unclear. Most pharmacies want to maintain their Internet services.