Time to end the obsession with broadband numbers

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 01 May 2007 03:06

Opinion and Analysis

Given the general agreement on the importance of broadband infrastructure, uptake and usage to the economic wellbeing of nations in the 21st century the quality of statistical information gathered in Australia, and elsewhere is woeful.

The spotlight was thrown on the issue this week when a top level US public servant - David A Gross coordinator of international communications and information policy - wrote to secretary general of the OECD complaining about the way the OECD gathers broadband data and compares member economies' broadband performance. His letter was spurred by the latest OECD statistics which showed th US falling from 12th to 15th place in the OECD rankings.

The OECD figures are based on the number of individual broadband services and, as Gross pointed out, take no account of those who access the net via thousands of WiFi hotspots etc on college campuses, in municipalities etc.

There have been several attempts to get a more realistic grip on the parameters that really matter: not just the amount of broadband infrastructure and 'services' but what people do with it. In May last year Forrester Research published its Broadband Activity Index (BAI). It pointed out, quite correctly that broadband is a key technology in consumers' uptake of Internet activities like social computing and eCommerce. But that "companies can't rely on broadband adoption alone to understand the breadth and depth of Internet usage in different regions."

To rectify this Forrester offered the BAI as "strategic tool for companies that plan to build an online presence either locally or globally by uncovering and providing colour to consumers' online preferences and activities."