Many Governments are taking on new Broadband plans; this is good news to telecentres!

[Sandra Nassali]

Many countries, both developing and already developed, are taking on new broadband plans meant to reduce internet costs and also increase accessibility of the net in rural and inaccessible areas.

In Africa, this is witnessed with the coming of SEACOM in the Eastern and Southern parts of the continent. The 15,000km fibre optic undersea cable is meant to link these regions to the rest of the world. The construction of this fibre optic will help develop appropriate infrastructure to oversea the rapidly increasing traffic. Opportunities to be realized will include high quality broadband and international connectivity both at affordable rates. It will also provide access to untapped emerging markets in voice, mobile and Internet traffic at lower costs.

In Australia and U.S, similar projects are being undertaken. Recently, Australia announced plans to build a 30 billion US dollar broadband network, its biggest infrastructure project ever. Calling Australia a "broadband backwater," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the current network was hampering the economy and compared the importance of the project to the appearance of electricity in the 20th century.
Providing a fast, affordable broadband network was a major campaign promise when Rudd's centre-left government was elected in November 2007, with the existing copper wire network slower than that in most developed countries.

"Slow broadband is holding our national economy back" the Prime Minister noted.

In the U.S, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to start holding hearings on how to spend taxpayer money on building and upgrading broadband access in the United States.
The U$787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year calls on the FCC to come up with a road map for how billions of dollars in government money should be spent to improve broadband in the United States.

The FCC has until next February to come up with a plan, and it's starting to hold hearings on Wednesday to discuss what will hopefully become a national broadband strategy.
As part of the process, the agency will look at ways to improve broadband coverage so that people living in rural areas have access to high speed Internet. And it will also be looking at ways to improve the speeds of existing broadband infrastructure. The FCC will also consider updating outdated communications policies to make them more relevant as more Americans get communications and TV service from non-traditional companies.

Many telecommunications experts say the new broadband framework being laid out will be the biggest task the FCC has handled since implementing the Telecom Act of 1996.

Telecentres are definitely bound to benefit from these projects. Let us watch the space!!