A national broadband plan is a national plan to deploy broadband Internet access. Broadband is a term normally considered to be synonymous with a high-speed connection to the internet. Suitability for certain applications, or technically a certain quality of service, is often assumed. For instance, low round trip delay (or "latency" in milliseconds) would normally be assumed to be well under 150ms and suitable for Voice over IP, online gaming, international financial transactions, virtual private networks and other latency-sensitive applications. This would rule out satellite Internet as inherently high-latency. In some applications, utility-grade reliability (measured for example in seconds per 30 years outage time as in the PSTN network) or security (say AES-128 as required for smart grid applications in the US) are often also assumed or defined as requirements. There is no single definition of broadband and official plans may refer to any or none of these criteria.
Beyond broad latency and reliability expectations, the term itself is technology neutral; broadband can be delivered by a range of technologies including DSL, fiber optic cable, powerline networking, LTE, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or next generation access. Several operators have started to combine two of these technologies to create Hybrid Access Networks. This article presents an overview of official government plans to promote broadband – based on official sources that may be biased due to their promotion of the government plan as effective and positive.
Such plans are recommended by OECD and other development agencies. All G7 countries except Canada have such a national broadband plan in place now.
Comparisons Most countries considering such plans conduct their own comparative evaluations of existing national plans. The US, for instance, in September 2010 published a comparison of seven other countries' plans.Telecommunications: National Broadband Plan Reflects the Experiences of Leading Countries, but Implementation Will Be Challenging US Government Accountability Office, published 14 September 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2010. The OECD tracks closely policy in this area and publishes links to relevant policy documentsInformation and Communications Policy, National Broadband Plans of OECD countries OECD. Retrieved 2 November 2010. from its member (developed) countries. Developing countries' plans are studied most closely by the World Bank as part of its e-Development program.Investing in Broadband Infrastructure for Economic Stimulus and Growth (PDF) accessed 2 November 2010. It has released the World Bank Broadband Strategy ToolkitWorld Bank Broadband Strategy Toolkit: Module 3. Retrieved 2 November 2010. to assist in policy development.
Furthermore, the close relationship of universal wired broadband and smart grid plans is the subject of much study particularly in the US and Europe. The US plan has ambitious energy demand management goals (see National Broadband Plan (United States) for more details on these and their relationship to other US national goals) and its broadband plan is generally considered to be a pre-requisite to its communications-intensive energy strategy. This is also true to some degree of other countries' broadband plans.
Americas
Northern America
Canada
As of early March 2009, colleagues in Industry Canada confirm that the current national broadband strategy is a short statement in the 2009 budget:
"Canada was one of the first countries to implement a connectivity agenda geared toward facilitating Internet access to all of its citizens. To this day, Canada remains one of the most connected nations in the world, with the highest broadband connection rate among the G7 countries. However, gaps in access to broadband remain, particularly in rural and remote communities. "The Government is committed to closing the broadband gap in Canada by encouraging the private development of rural broadband infrastructure. Budget 2009 provides $225 million over three years to Industry Canada to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to all currently unserved communities beginning in 2009–10." The budget specifically includes:
"Providing $225 million over three years to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to unserved communities." On 6 March 2009, Mr. John Duncan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-status Indians, announced that the Government of Canada will contribute $7.86 million to the First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS) and their partner, the First Nations Technology Council (FNTC) in British Columbia, for the construction and provision of satellite broadband network capacity connecting 21 remote First Nations communities in British Columbia.
In a 4 June 2009 news release, the CRTC endorsed the National Film Board's call for a national digital strategy.
No substantial action, followup or funding was announced in the 2010 or 2011 budgets. CANARIE remains Canada's only publicly funded backbone network. Several provinces, especially Nova Scotia, have their own plans for broadband universal service see Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative but these are generally last-mile services using fixed wireless technologies (Motorola Canopy in the case of Nova Scotia). No province is covered with public backhaul available to general public & business, though some provinces, regions and municipalities own some fiber.
United States
In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – popularly referred to as a post-recession stimulus package – Congress charged the US Federal Communications Commission with creating a national broadband plan. The Recovery Act required the plan to explore several key elements of broadband deployment and use, and the commission now seeks comment on these elements, including:
The most effective and efficient ways to ensure broadband access for all Americans Strategies for achieving affordability and maximum utilization of broadband infrastructure and services Evaluation of the status of broadband deployment, including the progress of related grant programs How to use broadband to advance consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation, and economic growth, and other national purposes.
The plan was published in March 2010, on the same website used to gather public comment during its preparation.
The plan is integrated with the US smart grid policies. A major purpose of the broadband plan is to enable M2M communications for that purpose.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Argentina
The number of Internet users in the country has been estimated at 26 million (2010), of which 5 million, by late 2010, were broadband users (82% of which were residential and 81% of which connected at a speed of least 512 kbit/s), and over 1.3 were wireless and satellite users.
Among residential users, 38.3% were located in Buenos Aires Province (including Greater Buenos Aires), 26.0% in the city of Buenos Aires, 8.2% in Córdoba and 7.4% in Santa Fe Province. According to a 2010 report by IDC Consulting, Argentina has a rate of 9.3 broadband accounts per 100 inhabitants, only surpassed in the region by Chile, which registered 9.7. Despite this relatively good national indicator, the penetration of Internet is not the same in all provinces, and some provinces, like Jujuy, have only 0.2 per 100 inhabitants; Formosa Province 0.3; Corrientes Province 0.4; and Tucumán Province 0.7.
To reduce this disparity between provinces, in October 2010 the government presented a five-year plan, with an initial investment of 8,000 million pesos, called Plan Nacional de Telecomunicación "Argentina Conectada" ("Connected Argentina" – National Telecommunications Plan), under command of the state-owned enterprise ARSAT.
Most of the financing is intended for the acquisition of the high-tech material required. The main goal is to expand broadband to the whole national territory, and to cover more than 10 million homes with a connection by the year 2015. This is supposed to duplicate the present number of residences which have access to these services, and to quintuple the penetration of optical fiber in the country.
Brazil
In October 2009, the Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications sought to tighten rules on domestic broadband service providers which, if implemented, could force firms such as Telefónica of Spain and Mexico's América Móvil to increase their investments in the country, according to local daily O Estado de S. Paulo reports. It is understood the new rules are designed to improve customer service with a specific focus on the delivery of stated broadband connection speeds; around 50% of users are currently thought to receive less than half the speed promised by their Internet service provider (ISP). New legislation could enter into force in 2010 requiring domestic broadband providers to comply with stricter standards on service quality. Anatel move comes in the wake of an explosion in demand for broadband internet access which has seen user number swell to around 18 million, but also resulted in major disruptions to services – such as the recent high-profile outage of Telefónica's Speedy service which left millions of customers offline.
Chile
In October 2008, Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, announced this week the countries' most ambitious telecoms subsidy plan ever, in terms of public investment and area of coverage. The project, which is aimed at boosting SMEs competitiveness in rural areas, will provide connectivity to more than three million people in 1,474 rural communities. The development is expected to cost US$100 million, 70% of which will be provided by the government through the Telecoms Development Fund.
Significance: At 30 March 2008, only 0.8% of the households in rural areas in Chile have internet access. Upon completion of the project, internet network coverage will reach from 71.6% of the population to 92.2%, according to the country's telecoms regulator.
In January 2008, Chile announced its 2007–2012 Strategy for Digital Development that will articulate the efforts of the public and private spheres as to new technologies during the next years. The project was prepared by the Committee of Ministers for Digital Development and seeks to provide further impulse to the ICTs in the Trans-Andean country.
The goals on which the Chilean government will place more emphasis are to double the broadband connections to reach 2 million by 2010, to increase SMEs competition, to advance on the digitalization of the public health system, and to implement new technologies in areas deemed key, such as the provisional reform and education.
In June 2009, Chile launched a new portal in which consumers may compare offers of all internet providers.
Colombia