Where is the market demand for broadband?

dahamsta

A topic that comes up quite often here.

Where is the market demand for broadband?
Andy Oram
Apr. 26, 2005 05:14 PM

The NPR radio show On Point had an in-depth discussion this evening of the lagging adoption of broadband in the U.S., which is certainly increasing but not at a rate matching advanced Asian economies. One caller raised a formalistic and rigid version of standard free-market economic arguments: if there is slow growth in broadband, it must be because there aren't that many people who want it. Where, he asked, is the demand?
In a situation like this where oligopolies in the local loop use political and market muscle to hold back competition, one has to look for other signs of the need. For instance, the rural areas of this country are emptying out. Even many cities are doing poorly as population piles up in a few megalopoli, particularly along the coasts.
This has all kinds of negative social ramifications: a crisis in affordable housing, increasing ecological damage and traffic snarls, exposure to flooding, and so on.

Basically, people are leaving the rural areas and the middle of the country because they can't get jobs. They also find themselves disadvantaged when it comes to educational opportunities and other amenities. High-speed Internet access, with opportunities for telecommuting, distance education, medical videoconferencing, and other modern applications, can help restore a healthy balance to the country.

[...]

scojones

The adoption of broadband would be higher if everyone could actually get it, and if the service was decent. The 2meg increase is good, but it's not great. The Asian government really do know what they are doing, the state of our government and Eircom is a pity. 2meg would have been brilliant 3 years ago, I still think we are a few years behind.

And if line rental was cheaper, it would also influence the adoption of broadband. Our dsl charges are cheap in comparison with the US, but we are being raped with the line rental charges.

Cryos

dahamsta wrote:

A topic that comes up quite often here.

However you are compairing two different countrys and this argument cannot be used in ireland for various reasons including the general IQ of irish people, the two different avarage income bands for the US and Ireland (The us normally being substancially less).

I know where you are comming from with this, however broadband uptake over here is starting to increase. From a business point of view i see myself setting up more peoples broadband services (interestingly enough from Irish Broadband), the amount of people i knew with broadband 6 months ago was few however now its hard for me to think of someone who has a computer that dosnt have it! or for the matter of argument that dosnt want it !

In my opinion at the moment, altho initally eircom gave us a below level service for broadband i think they genuinely have a decent service now. For those who can avail of broadband i envy you i have found that the testing system for eircom seems to be more leaniant.

I on the other hand have to wait for my Phase 2 MAN scheme to be compleeted (kilcoole)

scojones

Blitz wrote:

However you are compairing two different countrys and this argument cannot be used in ireland for various reasons including the general IQ of irish people, the two different avarage income bands for the US and Ireland (The us normally being substancially less).

Lies, average income in america is alot higher than in Ireland.
http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm

Cryos

bah Stupid irish education system :P *points to page on business studies book*

Jorinn

Average income is different than average income bands. Where blitz got the thing about IQ though is beyond me, if your under the impression that it stems from our "top quality world reknowned" educational system then forget it. Our educational system is not that good.

dahamsta

Blitz wrote:

However you are compairing two different countrys

I'm not comparing anything chum. You are. Irony rocks.

Cryos

You basically are if your:

A.) Putting it in the IrelandOffline forum to prove some form of point (and if your not then why is it here ?)

B.) As regards the IQ thing if you reasearch it over the net you will find it!

Wertz

Jorinn wrote:

Average income is different than average income bands. Where blitz got the thing about IQ though is beyond me, if your under the impression that it stems from our "top quality world reknowned" educational system then forget it. Our educational system is not that good.

IQ has nothing to do with your standard of education...

dahamsta

Blitz wrote:

A.) Putting it in the IrelandOffline forum to prove some form of point (and if your not then why is it here ?)

Because it's news. A search on my handle in this forum will reveal plenty of similar posts. If I wanted to make a point, I would have - get this - made a point.

If you'd like to jump to another conclusion today, press one, now.

adam

jwt

LOL

Adam is not renowned for being subtle with his "making a point" statements. Usually his points tend to smack you over the head, kick you in the groin and steal your lunch money.

America appears to be reaching some sort of equilibrium of penetration v. cost v. speed v. availability. In parts of America dial-up and Sat are the only available technologies. Other parts are winging away as fast as they can.

However for whatever reason America always seems to lag Europe in terms of technology/refinement. Try driving across America with one mobile phone and you'll soon hit interoperability problems just leaving one state.

Look at a typical Kitchen and you would think you were back in the seventies.

Don't mention cars ride handling and performance

That said they are still miles ahead of us in BB and if they are worried about asia and the pacific rim then we need to be scared witless.

Part of me wonders if the digital/rural divide is a natural phenomenon. Heavy industry moved to ports/water transport. Manufacturing stays near materials or ports. As we moved from primary into secondary industries (from collecting/growing things to making things) the natural flow of population was towards population centres centered around manufacturing.

Now that we are moving into tertiary industries there are two options available.

Leave the BB avilability as is and we'll see populations continue to concentrate in a handfull of spots

or

Kick the BB rollout up the backside, provide it everywhere and watch population pressure force people back into rural areas once employment is no longer reliant on physical location.

John

Gone West

jwt wrote:

That said they are still miles ahead of us in BB and if they are worried about asia and the pacific rim then we need to be scared witless.

The primary reason for this is simply, that they have cable (coax) laid down with every new cityblock or housing development, since about the 1980s.

Adam made his point well there, TBH.

dahamsta

I really didn't have any particular point. But I do now, and it's this:

There can be no coherent discussion on this subject if people try to apply the standard laws of supply and demand economics across the board. The only way to apply them, imho, is to break the market into segments, and regions, and other compartmentalised categories. The only way to get a coherent overview, again imho, is to examine those categories separately and then bring the findings together.

We can't do that in Ireland, to refute the garbage that Eircom spouts. Trying to do it on a one hour radio show, for a country the size of America, for a country as diverse as America, well, it seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

I think America has more important things to worry about anyway. AT&T may be gone by the wayside, but the Bells are still up to their dirty tricks. The Bell's battles against municipal WiFi, for example, are filthy.

And to be completely honest, I find the suggestion that there's a lack of demand in America as ridiculous as I find the suggestion that there's a lack of demand in Ireland. It's Supply and Demand, remember.

adam

Blaster99

jwt wrote:

Kick the BB rollout up the backside, provide it everywhere and watch population pressure force people back into rural areas once employment is no longer reliant on physical location.

I think you're being a bit optimistic. Nothing wrong with that of course, but most companies, particularly Irish companies, want their staff in an office, ideally in the city centre of Dublin for maximum commuting pain for all involved. I could be wrong, but I don't think BB availability is going to change things much.