Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation

Policy, Deployment, and Use

Jyoti Choudrie, Catherine Middleton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135014766
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: IT Industry
• Index: Business

When one considers broadband, the Internet immediately springs to mind. However, broadband is impacting society in many ways. For instance, broadband networks can be used to deliver healthcare or community related services to individuals who don't have computers, have distance as an issue to contend with, or don't use the internet. Broadband can support better management of scarce energy resources with the advent of smart grids, enables improved teleworking capacity and opens up a world of new entertainment possibilities. Yet scholarly examinations of broadband technology have so far examined adoption, usage, or diffusion but missed exploring the capacity of broadband networks to enable new applications, the management aspects of funding and developing broadband-enabled services, or the policy environment in which such networks are developed. This book explores a wide range of issues associated with the deployment and use of broadband including its impacts on individuals, organizations, and society, and offers a generalist understanding of the technical aspects of broadband.

Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation offers insights on broadband from the perspectives of Information Systems, Management, Strategy, and Communications Policy scholars, drawing on research from these disciplines to inform diverse aspects of broadband deployment, policy, and use. Issues associated with a subject technical in nature, but now researched in many ways, are emphasised. This book explains various softer aspects of broadband deployment and use, focusing on the benefits of broadband rather than on details of the technology.

1
Introduction

Jyoti Choudrie and Catherine Middleton

“Broadband access leads to the Internet, which is fast becoming a necessity of everyday life, much like electricity was in the 1930’s.”

“Broadband technologies will be the roads and railways of the 21st century, generating the next wave of economic expansion. Just as transport opened up new economic horizons in the last century, advanced communication networks will pave the way for productivity gains across global economies in the new century.”

The last two decades have seen the world being “reengineered” and transformed in radical and innovative ways due to advancing information and communication technologies (ICTs), including broadband. From the ways we shop, conduct financial transactions, interact and communicate with one another and the state, major changes have emerged. As the two quotes above show, broadband connectivity and the Internet access it enables are considered to be critical for daily life. Nonprofit organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Broadband Commission for Digital Development along with governments around the world also view broadband as critical and important for economic growth and development. This chapter defines broadband, explores the technologies and business approaches for providing broadband connectivity and provides a brief overview of each of the chapters in this monograph.

1. Broadband: The Technology

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reports that there were 590 million fixed broadband subscriptions and more than 1 billion mobile broadband subscriptions in use worldwide by the end of 2011 (International Telecommunication Union, 2012a). Worldwide, there was a 40% growth in mobile broadband services in 2011, with almost half of this growth coming from the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (International Telecommunication Union, 2012a).¹

In the developing world, mobile broadband is often the only means of broadband access. As no computer is required, mobile broadband may be more affordable, but provides a different experience than that of producing or consuming broadband content and services on more powerful, larger devices. In contrast, in the developed world, wireless broadband services are often used to complement fixed-line services. For instance, in Australia, although mobile broadband subscriptions made up 49% of total broadband subscriptions in the country as of June 2012 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a), 94% of data downloads were done using fixed broadband connections (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b).

In comparing numbers of fixed and mobile subscribers, it is noted that fixed services frequently support multiple users, whereas mobile subscriptions, especially in the developed world, may support a single user. Individuals may have more than one mobile broadband subscription (e.g., a data plan for a smartphone and a standalone mobile broadband subscription). For example, as of 2011 in South Korea and Singapore there were more mobile broadband subscriptions than there were people, but the fixed broadband subscription rates in both countries were lower than 40% (International Telecommunication Union, 2012c). It is likely that mobile broadband subscriptions will continue to outnumber fixed broadband subscriptions, but this does not necessarily imply that more people use mobile broadband services than use fixed broadband services.

Broadband services have been available since the late 1990s, with the OECD first starting to track broadband penetration rates in 1997 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2010a). The most basic definition of broadband is that it is not a dial-up service. There are good arguments as to why a definition of broadband should be a moving target, focusing on what can be achieved with certain network characteristics (California Broadband Task Force, 2008; National Broadband Task Force, 2001; Sawyer et al., 2003), but it has been common for policy makers to define broadband narrowly in terms of speed. In 1999, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defined a broadband service as one that offered a minimum of 200Kbps (kilobits per second) download and upload speeds (Federal Communications Commission, 1999), whereas the OECD definition set the minimum download speed at 256Kbps and the upload speed at 64Kbps (OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, 2001). In 2010, the ITU and OECD harmonized their definitions, setting the 256Kbps download speed as a minimum for fixed or wireless broadband services (Broadband Commission for Digital Development, 2010). While the ITU/OECD definition remains at 256Kbps, many countries have changed their definitions of broadband over time as technologies have advanced to offer much higher speeds as well as greater functionality.

In addition to being faster than dial-up, and making it feasible to access a growing range of audio and video content available on the Internet, broadband services were also popular because of their always-on functionality. As broadband services replaced dial-up, people started to use the Internet more frequently and in different ways, reflecting the convenience of always-on connectivity (Choudrie & Lee, 2004; Horrigan & Rainie, 2002).

Internet Access before Broadband

Before broadband technologies were available, individuals accessed the Internet through narrowband options that make use of telephone lines. In comparison to new services that have become available, narrowband access is very slow, and provides very restricted access to the Internet. Streaming music and video is challenging (and often simply does not work), graphical websites do not load effectively and file uploads and downloads take a very long time. Users experience frustration and annoyance when accessing the Internet using Narrowband Dial-up (ND) or Narrowband Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).

Narrowband Dial-up was one of the earliest ways for people to go online. A modem (modulating demodulator) is used to connect a computer to the Internet. The modem converts the computer’s digital data transmissions to a signal that can be transmitted over an ordinary copper telephone line to connect with a remote computer (e.g., to access an Internet service provider). Dial-up connections incur standard voice call charges of existing telephone operators; call charges varied depending on the number dialed. In some areas calls might be free and unmetered (in the case of certain parts of the United States or Canada) but in other locations users pay for timed calls and long distance charges as well as for the Internet access service. A disadvantage of dial-up is that it “ties up” the phone line, meaning that when a dial-up connection is in place it is not possible to place a voice call at the same time. The maximum speed of a dial-up connection is 56 Kbps (about 0.05 Mbps), has high latency (making it almost impossible to play games) and is prone to line interference. Even at dial-up’s top speed loading today’s web pages is extremely slow, but for some people dial-up remains the only available or affordable means of Internet access. Due to its ability to plug in to almost any phone line, dial-up is flexible, easy to use, widely available, and still useful as a temporary backup solution when a broadband service fails (provided the user has a modem and an Internet service provider who offers a dial-up service).

The second technology of the pre-broadband evolution cycle is Narrow-band Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Similar to dial-up, ISDN provides Internet access using a standard copper telephone line. Unlike dialup though, ISDN uses digital signals and can transmit data at speeds of up to 64Kbps downstream and upstream, while still allowing for voice calls to be made on a second channel on the same line. Speeds can be boosted to 128Kbps by using the second channel for data services (at an additional fee). ISDN requires adapters for existing analog telephone equipment, increasing the cost of using the service. ISDN offers better Internet access than dial-up, providing greater stability and more reliable performance. Although it was made available by many telephone companies from the early 1990s on, it was not widely adopted by consumers.

Early Broadband Technologies

The most widely adopted first generation broadband networks use either digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable modem technologies to provide connectivity. These technologies can easily deliver the minimum broadband speeds defined by the FCC and the OECD, and support a variety of services including email, web browsing, Voice Over Internet Protocol, streaming music and video (see California Broadband Task Force, 2008, p. 12 for a list of speeds required to support specific application types). DSL makes use of the copper telephone infrastructure, and was initially offered by incumbent telephone companies. Cable broadband services were offered by cable television companies. Both technologies have limitations. DSL signal quality degrades with distance, meaning that premises further from the telephone exchange experience slower speeds. DSL is generally provisioned on an asymmetrical basis (asymmetrical DSL or ADSL), meaning that download speeds are higher than upload speeds. Typical ADSL download speeds range from 1–8 Mbps, with upload speeds in the 800 kbps range (Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, 2002). ADSL2+, a faster offering, can provide download speeds in the 8–24Mbps range, with upload speeds of 3Mbps (Fijnvandraat & Bouwman, 2006). Cable networks generally provide shared bandwidth within a service area. In the early days of broadband service, cable offerings were frequently underprovisioned, meaning that as more people in a neighborhood used their connections, speeds degraded noticeably. While this is still a possibility, network upgrades have tended to reduce the severity of such slowdowns. Basic cable broadband service initially offered download speeds in the 3Mbps range (Lawton, 1998).

Fixed wireless and satellite technologies can also be used to provide broadband connectivity. To date, these services have been technically inferior to, and more expensive than, the wire line services offered by cable or DSL, and as such they tend to be used in rural and remote locations where there are no other service options. Across the OECD, just 2% of fixed broadband subscribers were using a satellite or fixed wireless service as of June 2012. More technical details of the first generation technologies follow.

Digital subscriber line (DSL) was the most common form of broadband connectivity in the early days of broadband, and remains dominant within the OECD (OECD, 2013b). DSL makes use of existing telephone lines, albeit at speeds considerably faster than dial-up, speeds of up to 8Mbps (ADSL) or 24Mbps (ADSL2+). DSL remains a common technology for delivering high-bandwidth (broadband) information to homes and small businesses over standard (copper) telephone lines. As a single telephone line supports separate voice and data channels, DSL allows the service of making a telephone call while simultaneously surfing the Internet.

Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband can be installed quickly and cheaply (often no home visit is required as customers can easily install their own ADSL modems). ADSL is widely available, but as customers seek higher speeds and more reliable performance many are shifting away from ADSL. ADSL speeds can slow because of poor in-home wiring, interference from other electrical devices, and ISP congestion. Additionally, the speed of the connection degrades over distance, meaning that premises that are more than a few kilometres away from the local exchange are not able to achieve the maximum possible upload and download speeds.

Fixed wireless is common in rural and remote areas where there is no fixed line infrastructure. Fixed wireless providers currently offer speeds in 10–12 Mbps range. Fixed wireless services tend to be more expensive than similar DSL or cable offerings, but offer superior connectivity to dial-up. Fixed wireless requires ‘line of sight’ connectivity, meaning that a subscriber’s equipment must be installed in a way that allows obstruction-free communication with the Internet service provider’s transmission tower. This means that some rural premises cannot be served by fixed wireless providers.

Satellite broadband is the only real choice for people who live outside the DSL and cable footprint and cannot get a line of sight connection to a fixed wireless provider. Satellite broadband offers faster download speeds than dial-up, but has some disadvantages. 4G providers currently offer download speeds of up to 10 Mbps, but upload speeds are typically limited to about 1 Mbps, making it difficult to send large files. Customers must buy a satellite antenna to receive their satellite broadband connection and have this installed by an expert, and the overall cost of service is higher than comparable fixed line services. Monthly usage caps tend to be quite restrictive, with high charges for data overages. Latency is also an issue, with delays as signals travel from the customer to the satellite and back again, and signals can be weak in poor weather. While satellite broadband is better than no broadband, it does not work well for applications like Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephony, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) or gaming that require highly reliable, low latency connectivity. Satellite broadband technology does continue to improve however, with Australia’s National Broadband Network planning to launch satellites in 2015 that will be capable of offering 25 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload speeds across the country.

Mobile broadband or third generation (3G): Mobile broadband services operate on mobile phone networks, providing connectivity to smartphones and tablets, and also offering standalone mobile broadband (accessed through a “dongle”² connection or a personal hotspot). Mobile services are popular because they allow Internet access almost anywhere.

Mobile services are delivered over a variety of radio frequency spectrum bands, with basic services being offered on different bands in different countries. Common bands include 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 Mhz (these bands are all supported in ‘quad band’ handsets popular with travelers), as well as 2.6 GHz. In terms of data speeds, third-generation (3G) mobile broadband download speeds range from 384Kbps to more than 14Mbps, delivered using high speed packet access (HSPA) technology. Fourth-generation (4G) services, also known as long term evolution (LTE), are now being rolled out by operators around the world and offer speeds in excess of 100Mbps. South Korea was an early adopter of 4G mobile broadband services and there is now excellent 4G coverage across Canada and the United States.

For many, mobile broadband is the best alternative to fixed line services. Although it does not have the reach of satellite broadband, mobile broadband is widely available, often providing service in areas where there is no DSL or cable connectivity. In many countries, almost the entire population has mobile coverage. One of the benefits of mobile connectivity is that it allow...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• PART I Basics of Broadband
• PART II Broadband Access and Adoption
• PART III Uses of Broadband
• PART IV Broadband Policy and Strategies for Network Deployment
• Contributors
• Index