Trans-sector developments in America and Europe (travelogue)
Over the last two weeks I have had high-level meetings with government representatives in both America and Europe.
The trip started off in the Netherlands, where I had two Roundtable meetings with my Dutch colleagues in relation to the NBN and the trans-sector developments in Australia, plus a separate meeting in relation to the smart grid developments (in particular the smart grid/smart city project see: Australia – Smart Grids – Analysis – The Market in 2009.
I also had meetings at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, discussing trans-sector innovations. The Netherlands is one of the more advanced countries in Europe in relation to fibre rollout, but they are now facing the reality that penetration will remain low unless a trans-sector policy stimulates the development of applications for the digital economy. Developments in the Netherlands are certainly works-in-progress and interesting lessons can be learned from the deployment of P2P and GPON-based fibre networks. This needs to fine-tuned in order to get a better price structure in place. For more details see: Europe – Travelogue – High level trans-sector discussions in The Netherlands October 2009.
In Geneva I met with the ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré, who is another enthusiastic supporter of the trans-sector concept. With him I discussed the possibility of his taking an international leadership role in promoting the concept. We also talked about possibilities for developing countries.
See the BuddeBlog I wrote on India: Broadband leadership required in India. For more details on my meeting with the Secretary General see the BuddeBlog: Meeting with ITU Secretary General Dr Hamadoun Touré.
In Geneva I had a meeting with the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy. This discussion very much concentrated on the strategic developments of the National Broadband Network. Now that we have widespread support for the vision and the trans-sector elements of the plan we need to make sure that this vision is reflected in the actual rollout of the infrastructure and the services that are going to be made available by NBN Co.
The Minister is committed to his strategy and some interesting new steps in relation to that strategy will be taken over coming months. I have created a completely new set of reports on these developments, see:-
The last leg of my trip brought me to Washington. This began with a Roundtable with my American ‘Big Think Team’ colleagues – a most invigorating event, debating the specifics of developments in the USA.
You may recall that immediately after the presidential election I led an international team in the production of several reports for the Obama Transition Team (the Big Think Team mentioned above). The highlight of my American visit was my meeting in the White House with President Obama’s special assistant, technology and innovation policy, who had been greatly involved in the Big Think Team project during that time. We had an early win with the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus investment and we argued for open networks, which has been included and is now becoming one of the triggers for change.
Our latest report to the Obama government was on the trans-sector concept and, as would become clear on the following day, this had also been well-received.
That next day I attended meetings at the FCC, including one with Blair Levin, who is leading the national broadband plan in the USA. I was pleasantly surprised when he introduced me to his new director ‘trans-sector’ – no need to say that I got on very well with her.
To further highlight the commitment that America is making to these developments, this was reflected in the discussion I had in Geneva with two very senior representatives from the US government, Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at NITA (Department of Commerce) and Philip Verveer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. They both demonstrated a clear understanding of the issues and in separate sessions indicated that the current work of the FCC is aimed at addressing some of the underlying social and economic matters that can be resolved by using open networks to facilitate new applications for ultimate delivery over FttH networks. They clearly named the problem; the ownership of pipes and content.
They confirmed this to me in a follow-up conversation. We believe this is significant because it demonstrates the American government’s commitment to change. Both Mr Strickling and Mr Verveer said that this FCC investigation is the most far-reaching they have ever seen in the history of the Agency.
I am currently working on a full analysis of these new developments in the USA and will let you know when that is finished.
Paul Budde
