National Broadband Strategy Needs Global Scope, Panelists Say
Global connectivity will be an economic motor and should be a major goal of the National Broadband plan, Diane Cornell, Inmarsat’s vice president of government affairs, said at an FCC workshop Thursday on using broadband to connect the U.S. with the rest of the world. Satellite technology can already provide the connections with a single interface, allowing users everywhere in the world the same experience. True global connectivity is impeded by spectrum coordination from country to country, a time-consuming and expensive process, she said. Steady regulatory environments around the world can promote the use of satellite technology for many applications, she said.
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SES is helping increase connectivity around the world through its $75 million investment in O3b, a startup named for the “other 3 billion” that lack broadband, said Steve Corda, SES World Skies’ vice president of market development. The company will provide middle-mile service in underserved regions through eight medium earth orbit satellites at first and eventually 16. The government could increase satellite’s role by guaranteeing or underwriting initial investments, because startup capital for satellite ventures is often hard to come by, said Corda.
Verizon is continually trying to increase its global network, which includes capacity on many satellites and which controls more than 80 undersea cables, said Jacquelynn Ruff, the vice president of international public policy and regulatory affairs. As Verizon’s services become more complex, the carrier has seen a need for additional undersea cables, including the trans-Pacific cable that began operations in 2008 and the Europe-India gateway that will provide connectivity through the Mediterranean Sea.
About 80 percent of Ericsson’s broadband subscribers around the world in 2014 will be mobile users, said Nils Rix, vice president of strategy and marketing. The common GSM standard has been an important factor in the mobile telephone boom and will be important for large-scale connectivity across newer technologies, he said.
Universal connectivity and a global ecosystem is “about the growth of markets,” said Valerie D'Costa, director of infoDev, a global grant program managed by the World Bank. She said growing connectivity in underdeveloped nations “needs a sustained plan of action” and a soon-to-be-released study will describe some necessary building blocks for that plan.
A second panel, on the users and applications for broadband around the world, emphasized a need for more bandwidth. An increase in bandwidth could allow pilots to see on handheld devices live images of what they are about to fly over, said Chief Technology Officer David Mihelcic of the Defense Information Systems Agency. More bandwidth could also increase the number of students taking courses online and improve their experiences, said Theo Stone, the director of academic technology at the University of Maryland’s University College. Stone mentioned a student deployed in the Middle East who must take online courses in the middle of the night because bandwidth is so limited.
Organizations that are using the limited connectivity in developing nations don’t have huge bandwidth needs, said Paul Margie, a partner at Wiltshire & Grannis who has worked with Telecoms sans Frontieres. Excel applications that can easily list what’s needed and whom to contact are among the most important applications that these groups use, he said.