[LINK] defining broadband

[Tom Worthington]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> "U.S. wants to define broadband .."
> http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57J72620090820
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. telecommunications regulators on Thursday 
> sought public comment on how to define "broadband," ...

The ABS ICT Reference group discussed this issue at its October 2005 
meeting. From my notes, the ABS definition is "always on 256k": 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2005/10/ict-reference-group-meeting_13.html>.

Other countries used Mpbs and some had no definition at all, making 
statistics, such as those from the OECD, difficult. To me it seemed at 
the time that the always on aspect was more important than speed. It was 
not that you could get mbytes of data, but that you could easily get the 
Internet without having to fiddle around with a modem and telling your 
sister to get off the phone.

 From the article quoted it appears the USA uses 768 kbps. I wonder why 
they used that figure, as it does not seem to match any technical 
standard. Perhaps it is the speed which enough marginal voters can get 
to influence a US election? ;-)

It may be that lower speed Internet access via smart phones and netbooks 
will have a far higher impact than fixed desktop device broadband. As an 
example, wireless Internet could revolutionize education: students can, 
in theory, take my Green ICT masters course via a smart phone and it is 
very practical for them to do it on a $500 netbook. I will be discussing 
this in an ANU seminar 4pm Thursday (all welcome): 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/collaborative_e_learning/index.shtml>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 0261259654
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274