Today USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture during a hearing to review rural broadband programs.
McCormick focused on the importance of bringing broadband to rural America, and said USTelecom and its members are “united by our shared determination to deliver the broadband future to all Americans, no matter where they live.” Other panelists included representatives from the USDA and the Rural Utilities Service, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and other industry representatives.
In a time when many Americans are downsizing their spending habits, broadband appears to be virtually recession proof. According to a new Strategy Analytics study, 69% of surveyed households announced plans to keep their home broadband connections, and possibly even increase spending on the service.
Just how big is the demand for broadband? A new Parks Associates’ study projects that more than 640 million households worldwide will have broadband by 2013. And, in 2008 alone, household broadband service jumped 18% worldwide.
Clearly, Americans value broadband and consider the technology a necessary tool. After all, broadband makes so many opportunities available to us from better health care, education and the environment to socializing and working to countless other informational resources. With pro-investment policies and innovative public-private partnerships, broadband infrastructure and services will continue to grow, connecting us with the innovation and information we crave.
When it comes to medical advice, consulting a doctor has long been the only real option. Now, thanks to broadband, consumers are making excellent use of other online resources to enhance their health knowledge – from blogs and podcasts to reviews of doctors to online searches for health information. According to a Pew Internet and American Life Project study, today’s “e-patients” are becoming increasingly engaged over the Internet, with 61% of American adults going online to find health information.
In addition to turning to traditional sources of health information, the study reveals e-patients are participating online through an array of forums, including:
60% of e-patients have written or created new health content, including posting comments, questions, reviews, photos, videos, or audio files.
41% of e-patients consult blogs, group forums, or online news sources to hear firsthand experiences related to specific health or medical issues.
24% of e-patients have checked rankings or reviews of online medical professionals and facilities.
19% of e-patients have requested updates regarding health issues, and 13% of e-patients have tuned into a health-related podcast.
Just how much sway does Internet information hold with e-patients? According to the study, 60% said online information influenced their decision regarding how to treat an illness or condition. Others reported online information helped enlighten them on ways to get healthier – with 56% saying they changed their health care approach, and 49% saying their perspective about diet, exercise, or stress management improved for the better. And, for 38% of e-patients, online information played an invaluable role in guiding their decision to see a doctor.
Interestingly, despite the explosion of social networking and Twitter, few e-patients use sites like MySpace and Facebook for health-related discussions with friends, or for personal posts profiling their experiences. The study’s authors speculate this will change as wireless connections drive deeper engagement and as the predominant age group participating in social networking (ages 18 to 49) face health care questions and concerns.
While medical professionals and institutions will always be integral to our health, broadband is connecting patients with a wealth of important information, as well as speeding other life-enhancing advances from telemedicine to health IT.
As streaming video via broadband grows in popularity and across demographics, businesses from Netflix to Amazon to iTunes anticipate consumers will watch movies over the Internet in growing numbers. According to a ‘Wall Street Journal report’, Netflix is looking ahead to this next chapter, even as record-breaking numbers of DVD subscribers join their ranks.
Already, Netflix has made 12,000 movies available for instant viewing through its website at no additional subscription charge – with the long-term goal of offering the volume and diversity of films currently held in its library of 100,000 DVDs. Another important piece of Netflix’s strategy is collaborating with electronics makers to give consumers access to Netflix’s service on television sets. So far, this effort has been a success—with Blu-ray high-definition movie players featuring Netflix, as well as TiVo digital video recorders, Microsoft Xbox 360, and television sets by Vizio, Inc.
Last year, Amazon made an ambitious start of its video streaming business, offering 40,000 movies and TV shows. Similar to Netflix, Amazon also offers streaming to select Sony TVs, TiVO devices, and Microsoft Xbox 360. In early 2008, iTunes also launched its online movie rental service, offering a smaller sampling of titles, plus a more extensive library available for purchase.
With consumers hunger growing for Internet video and a marketplace full of eager competitors, there will be no shortage of broadband entertainment options. So kick back, relax, and unwind at your convenience with an online movie rental this summer.
If you’re dreaming of summer fun, planning your vacation is as easy as going online. From travel websites to trip reviews, websites like “HolidayIQ” and “TripAdvisor” can help you choose your best adventure and provide a reality check on what to expect. Whether purchasing e-tickets or making hotel reservations online, the convenience of the Internet to coordinate plans is now a foregone conclusion for a growing number of Americans. And, for those looking to take their broadband gadgets on-the-go, today’s smartphones can do everything from offer directions to recommend restaurants. Consider these devices your virtual concierge.
For many of us, laptops are a must-have vacation accessory. In fact, 1 in 5 Americans bring their computers when they go away. From checking email to keeping up on news to posting pictures on Facebook, the desire to stay connected is increasingly prominent as broadband resources and opportunities abound.
Want to know more about how broadband is fueling vacation fun? Click on the video to hear more, or check out our Independence Day video wall to learn about the freedom and savings broadband brings.
If you think Nintendo Wii is purely fun and games, think again. According to a recent report featured in Live Science, Wii’s broadband-powered gaming system offers more than simple entertainment. It may actually enhance surgical skills by improving medical residents’ fine motor skills and performance. When surgical trainees played Wii for an hour prior to performing virtual laparoscopic surgery, Wii-playing residents scored 48 percent higher than those who did not warm-up with the Wii. The games were found to actually enhance residents’ speed and accuracy – qualities that are invaluable in patient surgeries.
Offering an inexpensive solution to on-the-job training or costly surgical simulators, Wii games designed to enhance surgical training are a tremendous asset. Not only will this technology allow residents to train at home, there’s also significant potential to tailor games to emerging specialties, such as robotic surgery. It may sound like a science fiction tale, but surgeons are increasingly using robots to assist with procedures or to help patients who live in remote areas. Wii games tailored to this evolving area of medicine can help build the knowledge and skills to implement this revolutionary technology.
Patients, too, are benefiting from Wii. Occupational therapists are tapping into the technology to exercise patients with Parkinson’s disease, and doctors at Weill Cornell Medical Center are engaging in “Wii-habilitation” to ease the physical and mental challenges facing burn-injury patients. Doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital have even found a way to use the Wii to expedite administrative tasks, such as scanning the high-volume of patient X-rays and MRI images.
Everywhere you look, broadband is speeding incredible advances across America – and the medical community is no exception. From innovative applications of existing technologies, such as Wii, to next-generation advances, broadband has limitless potential to revolutionize medicine and patient care as we know it.
Tired of repeatedly changing radio stations as you drive from one region to another? This summer, web radio can transform your listening experience behind the wheel, offering an expansive play list for free, or at a nominal cost.
Here’s how it works: Simply use your latest Internet-connected smartphone from Blackberry or iPhone to stream Web radio through your car speakers using an inexpensive adapter. Online music services from Pandora.com to Slacker.com offer extensive libraries of music to choose from—which can either be enjoyed for free with occasional advertisements, or for a small annual fee without the ads. Pandora custom-designs a radio station based on a song or artist of your choosing, and allows you to express your opinions on its selections by voting thumbs up, down, or skipping the song entirely. Slacker offers a similar, personalized web-radio option, or you can tune into one of the website’s existing 128 stations. With Slacker’s 2 million or more songs, and Pandora’s 600,000-song catalog, hours of interesting and diverse music are at your fingertips.
As you may imagine, free or low-cost web music has sparked controversy between the recording industry and webcasters regarding royalties. But thanks to dedicated discussions, it looks like a truce may soon be reached in which web radio sites pay a portion of their revenue to the recording industry interests. A compromise that will ensure web radio continues to blossom and converge with sophisticated broadband-powered technologies that bring hours of listening pleasure to consumers.
Here and at NextGenWeb, we’ve often discussed the powerful role broadband plays in U.S. digital democracy—from electing our President to giving the world access to his speeches. Now, micro-blogging is playing a pivotal role in the news and opinions swirling around Iran’s election. According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, even as the Iranian government has stopped or limited the use of social networking sites, Twitter has remained an invaluable resource for protesters and reporters to communicate post-election conflicts.
In fact, the U.S. State Department recently requested that Twitter postpone a scheduled maintenance to ensure the technology was available to protesters, activists, and journalists on the ground in Tehran. Reports out this week make clear that the technology is still under siege, with spammers attacking the micro-blogging site to send false information. But despite these attempts, CNN and other news outlets continue to tap Twitter to report news from Iran. Even though information via Twitter is not necessarily confirmed, the micro-blogging site may still be the most reliable and up-to-the-minute communications resource available.
Twitter is sparking a communications revolution and proving this technology has far more depth and breadth than many of us ever considered. It’s another positive statement underscoring the crucial relationship between Internet technology and free speech around the world.
Today Representatives John Lewis (D-Ga.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Penn.) introduced the Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2009 (H.R. 3011) to repeal the federal excise tax on communications services. In 2006, after several federal court defeats, the IRS stopped enforcing the toll portion of the tax. However the remaining portion of the tax still applies to customers who subscribe solely to local phone service.
USTelecom CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. applauded the bill’s release:
“We applaud Congressmen Lewis, Heller, Connolly and Thompson for introducing this important bill to completely repeal the federal excise tax on communications services. While the courts have found much of the tax to be unenforceable, consumers who subscribe to standalone telephone service – most often lower income or elderly customers – are still penalized by this regressive, outdated tax. There is strong bipartisan support for repealing the federal excise tax on communications and we will work closely with Congress to end the tax this year.”
From tennis to fantasy football, sports fans have a vast array of broadband-powered options to catch the latest game or network online. This week’s Wimbledon event is a prime example of the new sports culture in our digital age. Thanks to ESPN, tennis fans can now enjoy unprecedented, free access to live broadband and mobile coverage of the Wimbledon tournament via ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile.
Covering all courts live from the early rounds through the semi-finals, ESPN will offer nearly 650 hours of Wimbledon coverage, on top of the 275 hours of French Open coverage that ESPN ran recently. For fans who are hungry for even more, smart phone applications provide the latest Wimbledon news, live scores, and video highlights. And for social networking sports enthusiasts, FanZone combines the best Wimbledon quotes and bits from the blogosphere from Twitter, Facebook, and more.
Not a tennis fan? No problem. Today’s broadband landscape offers social networking sites and applications for every kind of sport. From fantasy football draft tracking to baseball scores and PGA schedules, these real-time updates offer everything from statistics to ski and surf conditions. And, perhaps the best news of all, many of these tools and resources are free.
So whether you plan to watch Wimbledon on your mobile device for that grand slam match point, or tune into other sports news and updates, broadband is speeding unlimited entertainment options to sports enthusiasts everywhere.
