As speeds go up and prices go down, the digital divide continues to shrink, thanks to the tens of billions of dollars invested in our nation’s communications infrastructure each year. The goal of a fully connected nation is closer than ever. For a closer look at how we’re doing in our efforts to increase broadband deployment, adoption, and education, don’t miss the newest installment of Broadband Now:
While e-health technologies drive down the cost of health care-with some estimates predicting an average annual savings from health IT of almost $81 billion over 15 years-service and hardware revenues for digital health technologies to monitor and care for elderly patients could climb as high as $1.8 billion by 2013, according to Parks Associates. Technologies contributing to that revenue growth include devices that can monitor vital signs, track locations and activities, and measure fitness progress.
For more facts about health care and broadband, check out our E-Health fact sheet. Some highlights:
Also, be on the lookout in the coming weeks for our next edition of Broadband Now, which is all about the ways broadband is improving our lives through better access to medical care.
Over the last few months, TelephonyOnline has been running a series on how the telecom industry is implementing various environmental initiatives. So far, the series has highlighted the efforts of specific companies to cover everything from company wide initiatives to lower power VoIP equipment to home automation services to solar powered data centers.
The newest in the series, which was released today, suggests that the next step for companies who have already made some changes to cut costs and increase energy efficiency may be adopting a comprehensive approach to the goal of reducing energy consumption. The article looks at a plan incorporating 12 strategies that “addresses existing network inefficiencies and spells out actions required to save energy in each case.”
Of course, telecom companies are also helping others go green. With the high-speed broadband connections our companies provide, millions of customers are reducing their energy consumption too. For more on how broadband helps our environment and reduces our energy needs, check out our “10 Ways Broadband Can Help Change the World.”
September is National Preparedness Month, and in honor of that fact, the newest edition of USTelecom’s Broadband Now (below) is focused on how broadband helps keep our families, our communities, and our country safe from both natural and man-made threats. In addition to the video, we’ve also dedicated the video wall on the front page of USTelecom.org to facts about National Preparedness Month and Ready.gov.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel at the Telephone Association of New England 50th Annual Convention in New Hampshire. Although video is certainly a critical service that is increasingly distributed via broadband, the panel I moderated, “Unique Broadband Applications Beyond Video: Meeting the Community and Shareholders’ Needs,” specifically covered health care applications. The panelists included two health care professionals talking about the mission-critical uses for broadband in their industry: Douglas McClure, corporate manager for technology and operations at the Center for Connected Health in Boston, and Sharon Daley, RN, of the Maine Seacoast Mission.
For more on broadband and health care, check out this section all about eHealth and the benefits of broadband on NextGenWeb.org.
Interesting research to report today about “value-added” broadband services: according to UK market research group Point-Topic, such services-which include VoIP, security, online gaming, home networking, music downloads, and video services-generated a whopping $26 billion worldwide in 2007. That’s nearly 30% of total broadband revenues, including subscriptions.
I talked about home security as a valuable add-on service for broadband providers and their customers in an episode of Broadband Now earlier this summer; you can check it out here.
As the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Denver and the Republicans prepare to head off next week to Minneapolis, it’s been interesting to see how broadband is changing the nature of campaigns. From state of the art campaign websites with a host of multimedia features to important announcements to supporters via text messages, the digital electoral battle is a more critical component of the presidential campaigns than it has ever been before.
USTelecom is looking at how broadband and digital communications are helping to shape this year’s elections, both on our interactive video wall and in the newest edition of Broadband Now, which you can see right here on the USTelecom blog:
There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday about how broadband is changing how some of the major TV news outlets operate. Rather than concentrating resources on expensive, highly staffed news bureaus in just a few locations around the globe, the Times reports that many networks are relying on a “new breed” of journalists–digital journalists:
When news happens, they will use Internet connections and cellphone cameras to report live.
“We are harnessing technology that enables us to be anywhere and be live from anywhere,” said Nancy Lane, the senior vice president for news gathering for CNN/U.S., a unit of Time Warner. “It completely changes how we can report.”
Broadband makes it possible for these one-man news crews to operate, filing stories and streaming video coverage of events from all corners of the globe. Of course bloggers have been doing this for years, leveraging the Internet to democratize the news. It’s cool to see that larger media outlets are following their lead by implementing their own version of a citizen-journalist strategy.
Worried about how to protect your home while you’re on vacation this summer? Never fear; broadband is here! Home security has gone high-tech with the rapid spread of broadband, allowing homeowners to do everything from receiving text or email alerts when home alarms are triggered to remotely monitoring a live video feed of their property from anywhere in the world. From more on the ways broadband is changing the way we secure our homes and our loved ones, be sure to watch the newest edition of Broadband Now.
On Monday, the FCC held a hearing on “Broadband and the Digital Future” at Carnegie Mellon University. Perhaps a more appropriate title for the FCC’s next hearing would be “Broadband is the Future.”
During these times of economic uncertainty, all American families are struggling to fill the gas tank, make the tuition payment and afford health care.
There is hope. This year alone, nearly 1,400 American broadband providers will invest an estimated $60 billion to expand the capacity and reach of the nation’s communications infrastructure. This investment far outweighs what the U.S. government spent to put Neil Armstrong on the moon. Even when combining what we spent to build out the interstate highway system, you still don’t achieve the level of investment we’re seeing in broadband networks today.
We’re just beginning to understand the “Broadband Economy” of the future. But here’s what we do know.
America can and is doing more to make this future a reality. Here’s hoping our nation’s future broadband policies encourage this progress—and the substantive, diverse private investment that is making it possible.
