The broadband myth
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
To what good, these high-speed links?
IN 1987 Robert Solow, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, famously said: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” It was only in 2003 that The Economist felt comfortable boldly proclaiming: “The ‘productivity paradox’ has been solved.”
As Dr Solow observed, most countries saw productivity growth slow in the 1980s and early 1990s, just as computers were becoming widely used. Techies grumbled, economists sharpened their pencils—and businessmen ignored the argument and went on buying the kit. But the conclusion was clear: new technologies on their own do not raise productivity. Rather, companies and individuals must figure out how to make best use of them in order to reap their rewards.
There are important lessons in this for the ongoing debate about broadband. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regularly releases a ranking of broadband penetration, speeds and prices across its 30 countries. More recently, it has begun to look at coverage and competition too. It gives a handful of countries bragging rights and humiliates many others.
Indeed, America often gets a roasting. It fails to make the top ten in terms of broadband penetration and other metrics. The barbs have become so great, in fact, that in April 2007 America’s State Department complained to the OECD that the figures undercounted users because it did not include things like wireless access. And in Australia’s election campaign last autumn, the country’s modest rank was the source of sparring; Kevin Rudd’s new government has pledged a comprehensive national broadband strategy.
Random Posts:
- Tumors Feel The Deadly Sting Of Nanobees
- The End Of Hand Crafted Content
- Going Green: Standby savings in the home
- Ultra-wideband Radio Rides A Beam Of Light
- At $130-A-Barrel Oil, Electric Cars Look Cheap
2. Right-Click then Copy
3. Paste the HTML code into your webpage
Related posts:
