I identifies and quantifies the internet traffic and associated costs which shortchange the building and running of broadband networks and suggests restorative policy solutions. Cost recovery is the process to recoup the expense of building and running a broadband network with an accurate assessment and attribution of its use. This information helps operators and policymakers understand the problem at local and global levels and compare the pros and cons of different policy solutions.
Effective broadband policy ensures that all people can access the internet and that networks evolve to serve a wide range of services. Most people in the developed world can access a basic set of internet services, but it is not optimal. The Covid pandemic increased the urgency for universal broadband as people had to learn, work, and receive healthcare from home. More largely, the internet increasingly drives the economy and productivity and is becoming the key medium for the delivery of government services. Ensuring essential social benefit services online may be frustrated by the proliferation of video streaming entertainment, the pricing and policy of which takes de facto precedence.
However important and significant the rollout and adoption of broadband may be globally, gaps remain. Shortfalls are pronounced in rural areas, financially vulnerable communities, and in many emerging countries. These shortfalls could be addressed with pricing innovation, which seems to be stifled by a lack of policy evolution. In many countries, broadband is still sold like it’s 1995.
Roslyn Layton, PhD was featured in a March 23, 2023 story from Communications Daily “Telcos Urge EU to Answer ‘Daring Question’ of OTT Payment for Network Use” by Dugie Stanford….
Strand Consult aims to be both tough and knowledgeable when it comes to broadband policy. We reject the premise of “fair share” contributions to connectivity as no one can agree…
There is discussion now in policy circles is the notion of “fair share” and “fair contribution” to broadband networks. Let’s just say what everyone knows: nothing in life is fair….
Reports and papers have emerged over the last year in the global debate for broadband fair cost recovery. Some reports, like that commissioned by the German government, reflect the need…
Strand Consult has followed the development of South Korea for more than two decades. In the early 2000s Strand Consult demonstrated how South Korea, not Japan as many believed, made…
Europe lacks some €300 billion in investment to achieve next generation broadband goals. An accumulation of misguided EU telecom regulation has sent capital to more favorable investment regions, like the…
Why do you have such a big interest in the way companies charge for traffic on the internet and what you call “fair cost recovery”? CEO John Strand talks with…
Around the world operators experience exploding Netflix’s traffic exploding on their networks. They feel powerless to negotiate with Netflix for fair cost recovery, and Netflix demands that operators install its…
In these reply comments, Roslyn Layton responds to critique from the tech platform trade association Incompas which challenges her research about rural broadband cost recovery. Read about the hearing.
In this letter, a group of telecom policy scholars from around the world write in support of the FCC’s efforts to explore how to close the digital divide by modernizing…
The pandemic has heightened the importance of braodband with policymakers and increased the urgency of closing the digital divide, particularly in the US as FCC data shows that 22% of…
Netflix has become so big that it needs to invest in local markets to maintain growth and market share. It just inked a deal with Danish Radio (DR), Denmark’s public…