Massively Popular

By Brad

Massively Multiplayer Online games — think World of Warcraft — are big business in the United States. How big? According to Games Industry, in 2009 there were 46 million players. And all told, those players spent a staggering $3.8 billion.

Broadband and “Snowmageddon”

By Brad

IIA Co-chairman Bruce Mehlman has an op-ed today on AOL News:

High-speed Internet connections are helping to change the meaning of a snow day—serving as a vital tool to keep Americans working, even when the roads, public transportation and airports are not. For those who could go online from home during the storms, it was largely business as usual.

But clearly not enough could. The “Snowmageddon” of 2010 forced federal offices to shut their doors for days, resulting in an astounding loss of money and productivity. It’s been estimated that closing the government for just one day costs taxpayers roughly $100 million. If you factor in the business shutdowns in the private sector, it is easy to see that these storms exacted a high cost on the nation as whole.

The problem is that currently about a third of the population doesn’t have a broadband connection, and one in five don’t have any Internet connection at all.

Read the full op-ed.

creative commons image from zrail

IIA Video: Jay Ganson

By IIA

Jay Ganson, Business Development Manager of Ambient Corporation, discusses his company’s communication platform for interfacing smartgrid technology.

World Wide Watercooler

By Brad

The New York Times looks at the positive effect the Internet is having on television:

The Nielsen Company, which measures television viewership and Web traffic, noticed this month that one in seven people who were watching the Super Bowl and the Olympics opening ceremony were surfing the Web at the same time.

“The Internet is our friend, not our enemy,” said Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS Corporation, which broadcast both the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards this year. “People want to be attached to each other.”

Seeking to capitalize on the online water-cooler effect, NBC showed the Golden Globes live on both coasts for the first time this year, and the network reportedly wants to do the same for the Emmy Awards this fall, so the entire country can watch (and chat online) simultaneously.

IIA Video: Brian Foley

By IIA

Brian Foley, Provost of North Virginia Community College Medical Education Campus, discusses workforce development for the use of broadband.

Working Through the Blizzard

By Brad

Telecommuting has a number of benefits, from lower overhead costs for businesses to reduced energy consumption. But as an article in today’s USA Today points out, the ability to work from home via broadband also has its downside (for employees, that is). Namely, snow days are no longer days off.

IIA Video: Marcia Thomas-Brown

By IIA

Marcia Thomas-Brown, Program Manager for the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, discusses the economic benefits of broadband in the field of health care.

IIA Video: Joseph Fuhr

By IIA

Joseph Fuhr, Professor of Economics at Widener University, discusses broadband, the macro-economy, and the multiplier effect.

The Power of Language

By Brad

Today’s New York Times looks at the expansion of broadband on language education services:

With the growth of broadband connectivity and social networks, companies have introduced a wide range of Internet-based language learning products, both free and fee-based, that allow students to interact in real time with instructors in other countries, gain access to their lesson plans wherever they are in the world, and communicate with like-minded virtual pen pals who are also trying to remember if bambino means baby.

IIA in the News: Fox 11 LA Talks with David Sutphen

By IIA

IIA CES Blog Contest Winner Steven

By IIA

Dispatches from CES (Day 4)

By IIA

As part of IIA’s involvement in CES, we’re asking attendees to write about what broadband access means to their daily lives. Throughout the convention, we’ll be posting some the responses we receive

I use broadband all the time. It’s important to me in the instance of being my daily internet source. Being a Swede, I’m used to fast broadband internet. I have, for example, experienced the world’s fastest broadband internet; Swedish Telia, during the world’s biggest computer festival,  Dreamhack. Dreamhack is an event like nothing else: seeing more than 12.000 gamers being connected at the same time to different online games is really awe-inspiring.

Having a fast internet connection makes a big difference! I love broadband because it never lets me down. My household in Sweden has a broadband connection with 100 Mb/s via fiber optic cable. When I first got this a few years ago I was shocked: I had never experienced anything like it! It was fast, it delivered every time, it almost never froze (if it did it, the connection probably wasn’t the problem… darn computer!), and it made it so much easier for me to keep contact with family members across the world. I could finally talk to my sister, who lived in New Zealand at the time, without all problems I had before. This broadband still helps me out every time I talk to my family home in Sweden, something I didn’t think about before I left for my exchange-student year, but something I am very grateful for now.

I look forward to see future improvements in the broadband technology. It’s not because I want it to get better, for it is already great, but merely because of the fact that I want to see how fast a private household connection via broadband can get. I have both high hopes and high expectations for its future.

— Carl

I use broadband Internet a lot. I use it to talk to my friends and family through Skype. Sometimes I play games over the Internet, or I just watch some movies, etc. .. I use it really often.  In my opinion it is really important to invest to make a better coverage with broadband internet etc. because it makes lots of things really faster and more simple. Like for example I am from Slovakia and there is quite problem to get a fast Internet in some small towns (villages). Now in this time, almost everybody has a computer and I can’t imagine to use it without broadband Internet connection.

— Marek

At the moment I am an exchange student in Las Vegas. Here we have an awesome Internet connection with broadband. Where I cmole from in Germany, our connection is not the best, but still pretty good. But it cannot reach the broadband Internet I am used to since I am living here. Everything is way faster, so that you can upload new pictures to Facebook, while you are skype with friends on the other side of the world. It makes it comfortable and does not stress you out. Another thing for which you can use it is for the online gaming. BWA makes World of Warcraft or similar games way more fun to play.

To invest in broadband, in my opinion, very important, because Internet is the connection of the future and with broadband, it does not matter if your friend lives next door or on another continent. It just connects, wherever you are. That’s why I would support bringing broadband to every corner of the earth. Everyone should have the possibility to enjoy it J.

I think I couldn’t live without broadband anymore because it really makes using the Internet so much easier and faster. If I wouldn’t have it, I think I would feel back in time.

— Robert H.

Dispatches from CES (Day 2)

By IIA

As part of IIA’s involvement in CES, we’re asking attendees to write about what broadband access means to their daily lives. Throughout the convention, we’ll be posting some the responses we receive

I remember when I saw the first commercial for “broadband” high-speed Internet. All I actually remember about it was there was something about football players and watching them online. I can’t say that back then I honestly knew what broadband was, but I did know what the Internet was and was a daily user. I remember having to unplug the phone jack from the wall and physically switch from the telephone to the Internet. Then we waited. “Weeeee wahhh weeee wahhh bussssssssh kaack akck meeeeeeeeeeppppp brrauuunnnt.” We would make my mom so mad because she would be expecting a call and we would be playing some laggy video game on our sweet dial-up connection. Even at a younger age, I was completely aware and annoyed by the speed, or lack thereof, and inconvenience of my families dial up connection.
In 2000 my father became the editor of a small town weekly newspaper in very rural Arkansas. From the day he started until December 2009 he had been operating an entire newspaper using a dial-up connection. It is all he had so he made it work. Me seeing this from a “High Flyer” in the broadband community, I had always found it extremely frustrating to watch him work the way he did when I knew that just by having a broadband connection it would change his paper completely. Just having the option. After asking questions I found that the reason he didn’t have a broadband connection was that the company he works for didn’t want to pay to have someone drive out to rural Arkansas to install it. That’s it — just to install it. Finally, this December his new publisher took a trip to visit the Newton County Times and realized what he had accomplished without a broadband connection. Within one full business day the new publisher had broadband Internet and office telephones installed in the office. He was blown away that this paper was being put together without a broadband connection.
The sad thing to me is that he is the only office in the area with broadband. I can only imagine how the lives of those people would change if they too had the world at their finger tips. I personally spend at least 12 hours online. My life almost depends on some kind of connection. Having the ability to access any information at anytime is no longer “cool” it is necessary for me to accomplish some of the most important tasks of my daily life. I think there should be some incentive towards getting broadband into more rural areas it’s not fair that our lives are easier and they can’t even get anyone to come to their home and install the internet.

— Anne

As a full time telecommuter I would not be able to function without broadband. I communicate regularly using an IP Phone, web presentations and web video to clients across the country and Europe. Sending large presentations would not be efficient nor possible without broadband. Personally, I like the access that broadband gives me to watch video and listen to music streaming from my home server to my phone and computer no matter where I am located. 
— JW Hunt

The Internet has accelerated both the business and social worlds. Technology is making human organization and collaboration much easier and cheaper. From the millions of people keeping in touch with friends on Facebook to the masses using Google applications, it’s clear our future is online. The US government has used the web to make our government more transparent and share it’s wealth of knowledge and data. People can file their taxes instantly.

However, not everyone has access to these tools, and so organizations and government must hold on to the more expensive and slower means of mass communication. If broadband Internet access were treated as a human right, we could leave this old technology behind and greatly simplify our organization as a society. Everyone could have the same instant access to emerging online education programs, enormous libraries of public domain books and films, and a wealth of open source creativity software.

Despite its ubiquity, the Internet is still in its youth. We’ve barely scratched the surface of its capabilities, and as it continues to grow we have seen that there’s no end to the possibilities. But as it grows, we’ll need to be able to transmit more information at a higher rate. Without the government’s support of a new broadband infrastructure, the rate of public innovation will be held back. It’s clear that our future is in the free exchange of information, so our time and resources need to be allocated accordingly.

— Charlie

Dispatches from CES — Day 1 Blog Winner!

By IIA

As part of IIA’s involvement in CES, we’re asking attendees to write about what broadband access means to their daily lives. Throughout the convention, we’ll be posting some the responses we receive.

Aditya Saraf was yesterday’s winner in our Broadband Blog contest at Supercomm. For the winning entry, Aditya received an iPod!

Here’s Aditya’s entry:

More than the technology aspect what broadband means to me is that I am CONNECTED — with family, with friends, with office. It is extremely important in today’s world to be connected ANYWHERE ANYTIME, to have information available ANYWHERE ANYTIME.

As business people we all know the importance of having information available to us all the time, whether it is the latest stock information, who bought whom. And this can no better be understood than by a farmer in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh in India, who can check weather forecasts to determine the correct time to sow, can check prices of foodgrains and can even connect to buyers.

Broadband connectivity can change the way we lead our lives. It is not about technology only, it is about how it brings people across the world closer.

— Aditya

Dispatches from CES (Day 1)

By IIA

As part of IIA’s involvement in the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re asking attendees to write about what broadband access means to their daily lives. Throughout the convention, we’ll be posting some the responses we receive.

Everyone should have access to broadband. In this day and age, everyone gets email, surfs the web, etc. This is extremely time consuming on dial-up. I, personally was able to get broadband about a year ago. It definitely has made my web experience much better.

— Steve

What I think about broadband is that it is a faster way of using Internet and getting to know what I can do with it. If I had it I would use it because it is faster and easier to use than my type of Internet.

— James

Rural communities aren’t any different in their need for broadband — but with even greater need. Broadband equalizes the economic playing field. Why are the urban dwellers afraid of us rural geeks?

— Anonymous

More than the technology aspect what broadband means to me is that I am CONNECTED — with family, with friends, with office. It is extremely important in today’s world to be connected ANYWHERE ANYTIME, to have information available ANYWHERE ANYTIME.

As business people we all know the importance of having information available to us all the time, whether it is the latest stock information, who bought whom. And this can no better be understood than by a farmer in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh in India, who can check weather forecasts to determine the correct time to sow, can check prices of foodgrains and can even connect to buyers.

Broadband connectivity can change the way we lead our lives. It is not about technology only, it is about how it brings people across the world closer.

— Aditya

The Need for Smart Networks

By Brad

Over at App-Rising, Geoff Daily has a smart piece on the need for smart networks and net neutrality:

While I don’t disagree with the notion that we need to be encouraging the deployment of more open bandwidth, I don’t understand why we’d want to prevent innovation from happening within the network, why we’d rule out the possible benefits of smart networks over stupid networks. Why can’t there be a fast lane created for performance-sensitive applications that was open to everyone equally?

Don’t get me wrong, the advent of smart networks raises a host of questions about fairness, privacy, competition, and beyond. But I’ve come to think that this militant attitude towards opposing smart networks is actually the Achilles’ heel of the net neutrality movement.

I just don’t think its credible to suggest that we should be preventing innovation from happening anywhere on the Internet. I’m not even sure we can say that innovation at the edge is more important than innovation in the network. The point is that we shouldn’t be limiting ourselves.

Check out the whole thing.

IIA Video: Matt Rogers Speaks at Grid Week

By IIA

Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor at the United States Department of Energy, talks about the role of broadband in job creation and economic revitalization.

Broadband Fact of the Week

By IIA

According to Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett, the cable industry is outgrowing the wireless industry. Subscriber growth in the wireless industry over the last 12 months is up 5.3%, but revenue per subscriber is down 1.7%, producing just 3.6% revenue growth. The cable industry, by contrast, grew revenue per sub 4.1% over the same time period and total industry growth was 5.3%.

Eric Savitz, “Cable Vs. Wireless: Guess Which Is Growing Faster?” Barron’s. August 23, 2009.

More facts about broadband.

IIA Video: Making the Grid Smart

By IIA

At last month’s Grid Week event, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra spoke about broadband and making America’s grid “smart,” the need to encourage private investment to make the change happen, and the Obama administration’s “innovation strategy.”

Staying Connected From the Front

By Brad

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently visited American troops in the Gulf, and as a post on broadband.gov shows, the trip helped drive home for him the importance of broadband to military personnel:

While at the Base, I was able to see firsthand the importance of broadband connectivity in the daily lives of our troops. I visited the Base’s innovative education and online learning center, where troops can work towards college degree and other continuing education. I spoke with an expert working to place military medical records online, with the potential of real life-saving benefits to soldiers. And I spoke with troops at the Base’s recreational plaza, where WiFi access lets them keep in touch with families and friends through VoIP and social networking tools. There was a consistent and strong feeling that Internet access was a major plus for troop morale.