Transportation and Broadband

Trend: Less energy is consumed when fast broadband reduces the frequency of travel and commuting.

Excerpts from Peter Cochrane's Blog reminds us why fast broadband can offset travel.

Link: Peter Cochrane's Blog: The GDP threat - Broadband & ISPs - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

After degrading the broadband definition to much less than 2Mbps, and endlessly wondering why people would want more, and what would they do with it, governments, regulators, telcos, cable cos and ISPs are starting to realise the Japanese and Koreans got it right. A dedicated 100Mbps service is a minimal specification and 1,000Mbps looks like a more realistic target for a vibrant 21st century economy.

Are there any other choices? As far as I can see the only other options are a reduced GDP at a national level followed by a rapid slide down the global economic scale of productivity.

Beyond the creation of new industries and the transformation of the old, internet communication is about the only technology that allows us to offset travel and the associated burning of a lot of oil. But in this regard, we need big screens, hi-fi sound, telepresence technologies and more to make it work. And this we have, except we don't have the bandwidth necessary to get the level of realism of connection and communication to make it really work.

Hopefully the GDP threat will tip the balance where all previous logic, technology, economic and futurism arguments have failed. Fingers, wires and fibres crossed that we can catch up in time - the leaders in the field are way ahead and stealing more than a march!

We need to reduce energy consuming activities — super-fast broadband encourages more telecomuting, teleconferencing, and online education.

Comments

[Joe]

I have been talking about this issue with people for a few years now. The one biggest thing we can do to immediately decrease our dependence on oil is to telecommute. This will encourage government and industry to invest in network infrastructure and bring us closer to South Korea in terms of bandwidth. This is a win-win for everyone. It will help move wealth from the rich to the middle class and poor and I think that is why the current administration silently opposes it.