Broadband Connectivity: Global Access, Australian NBN & Impacts

This case study explores the global landscape of broadband connectivity, examining initiatives taken by countries like China, the United States, Singapore, and Australia to develop their broadband infrastructure. It delves into the status of the Australian National Broadband Plan (NBN) and the factors influencing its success, while also addressing the digital divide within Australia, highlighting disparities in access based on location and economic status. The study identifies countries with lower broadband access rates, attributing this to factors such as strict government regulations, geographical isolation, and poor economic conditions. Finally, it discusses the benefits of high-speed broadband, including faster communication, e-commerce growth, and improved online services, concluding that broadband implementation can mitigate the digital divide and offer significant advantages.

Running head: BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY
BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction
The innovation of internet has opened up many opportunities for the users. The internet
was first invented in United States. The main objective of the paper is to evaluate the growth of
the broad band across the word along with its impact on the users.
Discussion
Points of discussions:
 Initiatives those have helped to develop the broadband infrastructure. Identification of
countries and their successful initiatives for spreading the use of broadband.
 The current status of the Australian National Broadband Plan and other programs those
will help the citizens to use this facility.
 Discussing the digital divide and its impacts and risks along with then initiatives
regarding this issue.
 The reasons behind the lowest use of broadband in some countries and the possible
programs that can change then situation.
 Benefits and impacts of high broadband connection.
Systematic analysis of the discussion points:
Initiatives for developing the broadband infrastructure and development of broadband in
different countries: Certain steps has been taken by different countries in order to develop and
spread the broadband communication across the country. These steps in general are-
 Addressing the policy barriers: Most of the countries have certain rules and regulations
regarding telecommunication services. Those rules and policies has been reviewed

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before the implementation of the broadband communication. In case, if there was any
need for changing the policy, the modification of the policy has been done.
 Creation of environment for the private sector investment: The contribution of private
sector and private sector investment in developing and maintaining the network
infrastructure has helped the countries to develop the advanced broadband infrastructure.
 Setting standard of communication: It has been seen that the countries with the advanced
broadband using rate has a fixed standard of using the facility.
Successful initiatives taken by the various countries:
 China: China has spent $320 Bn in 5 years for the development of infrastructure for
spreading broadband [1]. The government of China has funded for developing the
infrastructure for delivering the broadband service of 50Mbps downloading speed for
urban areas and 12Mbps for rural areas.
 United States: In order to develop the broad band infrastructure Connect America Fund
II has been initiated. The network structure has already been developed in the country.
However, for the modification of the infrastructure investment of USD 70-75 has been
made per year.
 Singapore: OpenNet has been designed and developed by the government and SGD 750
has been invested for this development [2]. In order to increase the growth of broadband
the infrastructure provider and service provider have segregated.
 Australia: The broadband initiative funded by the government of Australia is nbn
Australia. The investment made for this infrastructure is AUD 41 Bn[4]. The time period
for this modification of infrastructure is 7 years. The goal is to achieve a download speed
of 100Mbps.

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Status of Australian National Broadband Plan:
National Broadband Plan of Australia is set up on 2009. The aim of this broadband is to
provide the network connectivity the people of Australia in lower cost. Nbn provides services to
the local network through retail phones and internet provider [7] .The current objective of nbn
was set on 2016. Nbn is fully owned by Commonwealth of Australia. The main objective nbn is
to provide sustainable performance and better risk management.
Factors that can bring broadband success in Australia:
 On 6th February NBN has announced a policy to increase the number of satellite and
wireless access speed up to 25/5 Mbps downstream/upstream. Initially the allotment of
FTTP by the nbn was 90% of the population, which has been increased to 93% in recent
time.
 Upgrade ‘Universal Service Obligation’ to give access of the broadband to the low
income families.
Digital Divide within Australia: Digital divide refers to the inequality with respect to the
social and economic aspect for using the information technology. It has been found out the three
million Australians are no online that is they are not using the broadband facilities. These three
millions of Australians are missing the advantage of digital communication in health and
economic aspects. The main aim of the government is to improvise the infrastructure to mitigate
the digital exclusion or digital divide.
The affected segment of digital divide:

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It has been found out the most of the rural areas do not enjoy much of digital access
compared to the cities in Australia. According to the recent survey 94% of people from the city
have the access to internet while only 82% of population from rural Australia have the access to
the broadband and internet [5]. The digital divide has been seen in terms of economic conditions
also. The 44% of people belonging from lower income house hold have the access to the tablet
[8]. The percentage in case of higher income family is 87%. According to the RMIT University,
the digital divide in Australia is getting narrower but deeper [6]. Moreover, some factors like
education and the work from home tendency contributes in digital divide issue.
Efforts to mitigate digital divide:
Certain steps can be taken to mitigate then digital divide:
 Education of the people: Education increases the chances of employment. The
employment will improves the financial condition of the people [1]. This will encourage
them to use online services.
 Improvement of infrastructure: The improvement of the broadband infrastructure will
help to reach the broadband services in the rural areas of Australia.
Countries having lower broadband and internet access rate:
Eritreans (Africa)
Timor-Leste (Island at North Australia)
Myanmar
According to Fortune, these are the places and countries with lowest internet usage in the
world [7]. According to the region wise statistics the lowest internet usage regions is Africa.

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Patterns observed in these countries:
 Strict government regulations
 Isolations from the rest part of the country.
 The geographical factors of the areas.
 The poor education and economic condition of the country.
Explanation of the row rates for using the broadband:
Most of these places are hard to reach and they are isolated from other part of the
country. Sometimes in some countries, strict government regulations are constraints for
spreading the development of broadband [5]. In most cases the economic conditions are not
good and the awareness of the people about the education is very low. This makes them unaware
about the advantage of using broadband.
Benefits of high broad band connection:
 The communication can be much faster using the fast connection.
 The high speed broad band can increase the growth of e-commerce.
 The growth of online services can be achieved with the high speed broad band
connection. This can contribute positively to the economic growth.
 Increase of productivity and lowering the cost of the service
 Development and maintenance of e-governance, e-health and e-education.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the implementation broad band can be
beneficial to mitigate the digital divide in the country. However, there are certain factors those

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can play constraints for spreading the broadband. Certain advantages can be achieved from the
internet usage.

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References
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