Low-cost Worldwide Gigabit-Speed Internet: Regional Development Promise and Policy Needs

1. Low-cost Worldwide Gigabit-Speed Internet: Regional Development Promise and Policy Needs Thomas Vietorisz City and Regional Planning Department Cornell University, Ithaca, NY - tv12@cornell.edu Urban Planning Program, Columbia University, New York City - tv12@columbia.edu www.communicationplanning.org

2. Overview • Advanced Fiber Network (AFN) technology • AFN — the latest step in the evolution of social communications• Goals of regional development • AFN promises a new era of regional development and global connectedness• Technology is not enough• A three-part strategy of coordinated new departures • Successful telecenters offer a paradigm for a new strategy of cultural change • Primary example of community autonomy as key to success: the Hungarian Telecottage Federation • Policy recommendations 1

3. Advanced Fiber Network (AFN) technologyPhysics:• Light of one color transmits Ethernet at up to 10 Gb now — still orders of magnitude below physical limit• Up to 40 colors over one fiber economically feasible now, over 1000 colors demonstrated in lab• AFN is now at start of lifecycle, wire and cable near endCost:• Deployment is low in cost — 1:10 compared to telephone• Transmission takes place at zero marginal cost• Line is upgraded at fiber ends — no digging or cable lashingUse:• Basic medium for massive convergent bit transfer• Can be appropriately supplemented by wireless* over very short distances * for mobile applications * over difficult terrain * on a transitional basis 2

4. AFN — the latest step in theevolution of social communicationsLanguage>> Writing >> Gutenberg’s printing press >>>> Electronic communications: telegraph, telephone, cable >>>> Radio, wireless, satellite >>>>AFN carrying Internet ultra-fastover optical fiberAFN is coming in as a Schumpeterian revolutionof creative destructionOn the destructive side • It threatens to strand telephone and cable assets • It threatens to override monopolistic business models • It generates determined incumbent resistanceOn the creative side • AFN holds enormous regional development promise 3

5. Goals of regional developmentBALANCE— between advancing production capability >> - sustainable - high-value, innovative - internationally competitive - with steady reduction of enterprise dualisms * large/small * foreign/domestic * traditional/emergent>> andadvancing quality of life — - shown by broadly disseminated levels of * education * health * living standards- achieved in a sustainable manner - with continuity of the region's cultural identity - with steady reduction of dualism, manifested by* the digital divide * income polarization * status differentiation by ethnicity, gender, race, geography 4

6. AFN promises a new era of regional developmentand global connectednessThe promise-For the Third World: access, free knowledge, education, closing of the digital divide - For industrially advanced areas: safeguarding society’s innovation common; support for development of lagging rural regions and problem urban neighborhoods - For in-between regions (CE Europe, Asian Tigers): faster catch-up - For worldwide social communications: a new era of low- cost, ultra-fast, global communications with near-universal access 5

7. Technology is not enoughThe problem:- Progressive deployment of a new technological infrastructure by itself cannot fulfill AFN’s promise - Indeed, AFN can make things worse by reinforcing both the incumbent monopolies and the digital gap - To fulfill the promise of AFN, it is necessary to leave behind the organizational models and mental perspectives inherited from the past - Therefore, in addition to deployment of a new technological infrastructure, important changes are needed in the cultural infrastructureof social communications 6

8. A three-part strategy of coordinated new departuresThe solution:Address three new departures in a coordinated wayIn terms of the technological infrastructure:1 Make a commitment to the new AFN technologyIn terms of the cultural infrastructure:2 Adopt a new organizational model - instead of a business model of regulated monopolies >>>> move to end-user ownership - this leads to an asset-based business model like that of the automobile industry - which leaves major roles for the private sector in the construction, maintenance, and technical management of the networks3 Adopt a new approach to culture change for closing the digital gap - instead of top-down implantation of computers/Internet access >> move toward culture change under autonomous community control 7

9. Successful telecenters offer a paradigm for a new strategy of culture changeTelecenters succeed if they function as instruments of community autonomy- Successful telecenters functioning in this manner exist in remote or rural areas of the First World* Canada * Australia * England -Third-World telecenters have mostly been established in a top-down fashion with limited community involvement and have at best had modest success - At an intermediate level of development, a highly successful telecenter movement with a core commitment to community autonomy exists all over the rural areas of Hungary * world’s highest telecenter density * 600+ and rapidly growing * paradigmatic for Third World rural areas - A major movement to establish Community Technology Centers in urban problem neighborhoods exists in the U.S.* Much harder than in rural areas * 130+ Centers in New York 8

10. Primary example of community autonomy as keyto success: the Hungarian Telecottage FederationCore telecenter commitment is to the effort of givinga voice to the community within the broader society- Achieved by empowering individuals and NGO’s in their dealings with local government and with business - Technology is only an instrument, though a key oneCommunity involvement from the start- No telecenter has come into being without community initiative and an ongoing community effort - Specific telecenter orientations can and do differ widely within Federation guidelines* employment * business development * government relations Direction and pace of culture change controlled by community- Modernization and development are aspects of this change - Narrowing of the digital gap emerges from this context 9

11. Policy RecommendationsSocial Communications Policy should support a high quality of life within an open society- in which people are empowered to control their own communication structures and processes - so that necessary changes may proceed with cultural continuity and a preservation of community identities.To do so, Social Communications Policy should adopt the three-part strategy of coordinated new departures:1 AFN deployment: progressively disarm resistances 2 end-user ownership and control: give it full support * cooperatives * condominium arrangements * community, municipal, or telecenter surrogate ownership 3 autonomous community control over culture change: emulate the Hungarian Telecottage paradigm in Third World rural areas; and work toward a viable paradigm for application in urban problem areas everywhere 10