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This chapter considers several dimensions of China's Internet. It begins by examining other national models of Internet development. It then assesses the Chinese government's role in building and managing the network, introducing Internet service companies, and overseeing the growth of mainly private content providers. While the chapter considers issues of censorship and control in a way similar to earlier studies noted above, it also highlights the dilemma the government faces of larger economic benefit in the face of potential political challenges. It details major developments in e-commerce from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. The chapter also notes the evolving demographics of network users, and assesses how ‘netizen’ profiles shaped usage patterns. It concludes that despite a desire to control Internet content, the government was firm in its intent to see the network expand and become an important part of the Chinese economy and society.

This chapter first puts the case of China's ‘digital divide’ in a comparative development context, and considers past studies of the importance of telecommunications spread to areas of low penetration. It then turns its attention to China, and examines the ways urban and rural communications systems have expanded over the past several decades. The chapter indicates that government leaders and institutions have goals for developing the industry that may not necessarily take into account the broader needs of all sectors of society. They have generally put revenue collection ahead of equitable access. Education officials, however, have made some progress in spreading availability of data networks. The chapter then considers newer technologies of data communication, and assesses problems related to equitable access to China's Internet. It concludes that government policies have brought somewhat mixed results, but that new technologies may help to bridge the digital divide.

This chapter explains the importance of traffic data in providing a richer picture of the overall state of broadband networks. It begins with an overview of what traffic data is generally available in networks, how this data may prove important in answering questions that are relevant to the entire community of stakeholders, and why collecting the data and making it more generally available is challenging. It then considers how data focused on broadband availability and on adoption metrics is becoming less informative as broadband penetration rises, and that network traffic data will be central to understanding and answering many of the questions relating to the health of the broadband access market. To answer these questions, it will be helpful to learn more about the distribution of usage across the user population, the characteristics of users that participate during peak periods of network congestion, and the variance in usage and how it differs by type of user. The chapter concludes with a discussion of open research questions and some of the interesting research efforts that have been initiated in recent years.

This chapter focuses on the adoption factors of ubiquitous broadband that includes both fixed and mobile technologies. It first considers how both fixed and mobile broadband networks are increasingly recognized as indicators of the knowledge economy, and how technological innovation and higher bandwidth enable entry into the era of ubiquitous broadband access. It then emphasizes the importance of successful diffusion of fixed and mobile broadband for the provision of advanced Internet Protocol-based services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) mobile television, and 4G applications. It also presents the results of regression analysis suggesting that network competition between fixed and mobile broadband, platform competition in fixed broadband markets, and the multiple standardization policy in mobile markets are all significant factors of ubiquitous broadband adoption and deployment. Finally, it discusses the moral and ethical considerations underlying the social justification for government policy promoting access to information and communication technology.

This chapter addresses the different stages of spectrum allocation in India, including the recently concluded third-generation and broadband wireless spectrum. Auctioning scarce spectrum, de-linking licence from spectrum, stricter criteria for allocation of spectrum and introduction of third-generation and broadband wireless access are the four stages of management of spectrum in the country. Subscriber-based Criterion (SBC) methodology for additional spectrum allocation should be dispensed with and a market-oriented approach to spectrum allocation such as auction should be instituted. Uniformity of annual spectrum charges across all frequency bands and technologies would facilitate change of use and effective use of allocated spectrum. The Unified Access Service (UAS) allows the licensee to provide access services using non-spectrum-related technologies such as wire-line service as well. The introduction of trading/sharing/mergers needs to be accompanied by several policy measures designed to allow the process of consolidation to take place in an equitable, efficient, and transparent manner.

This chapter explores in detail the Internet service evolution in India starting with the erstwhile monopoly provisioning by the government operator. It explains the restrictions on Internet service provisioning and the development in the broadband infrastructure in the country and the associated policy initiatives. The Basic Telecom Operators (BTOs) had an edge over the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in providing bundled Internet services. As per the ISP guidelines, the Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) were not allowed to deploy media gateways in India due to restricted internet telephony. In India, the National Internet Exchange of India resolves domain name disputes involving the in domain. Restrictions in the form of network neutrality may prevent deployment and further adoption of wireless broadband and mobile Internet. Internet access through the broadband network is still very limited in India. It is hoped that Internet services in India will pick up in the coming years.

The Internet is evolving from a best-effort, unregulated, data transport network overlaid on the legacy telephone network (or PSTN) into the global platform (the new PSTN) for a much more complex array of computing, storage and data transport services (the Internet Cloud). Policymakers confront numerous questions in crafting an appropriate market-based regulatory framework to protect the public interest with respect to the Internet's new role as essential socio-economic infrastructure. This chapter discusses the technical, business, and policy trends driving this transition, with special focus on the complex challenge of ensuring reliability in the Internet cloud.

This chapter provides a review of the telecommunications policy of the European Union. It discusses the motivations for the Commission's regulatory choices and provides some evidence on their performance. It finds that the outcome of the first regulatory period varied significantly between member states, reflecting the numerous implementation choices that were left at their consideration. The recent reform of the regulation addresses some of the past shortcomings, placing competition policy at the heart of the new regulatory framework. In so doing, the Commission intends to implement an evolving framework, in line with the convergence process, and a consistent application of rules across countries. Nevertheless, the new framework still poses some risks for technological neutrality.

This chapter considers what needs to be measured when it comes to Internet and broadband access and how to measure it. Around the world, claims that broadband infrastructure is central to the development of the knowledge economy are becoming indisputable. However, a gap exists between the discourses linking broadband deployment with the development of a knowledge-based society and the ability to deliver the desired outcomes. The chapter assesses existing information society measures like the International Telecommunication Union's ICT Development Index and the World Economic Forum's Networked Readiness Index, suggesting that while they provide a useful starting point for comparing national information and communications technology (ICT) indicators, they fail to offer sufficiently detailed metrics upon which to formulate policy related to the development and use of broadband networks. It proposes more nuanced approaches to understanding whether, and how, citizens actually benefit from access to broadband technologies, and offers suggestions for the development of new, policy-relevant metrics of ICT usage.

This chapter discusses access to broadband services within the context of democracy. It argues that the roots of information policy can be found in the implied social contract between governments and the governed and describes a new social contract relevant for the information age. It begins with an overview of the tradition of access to communication within the American commitment to the trinity of opportunity, participation and prosperity, followed by a discussion of the goals of Universal Service policy mandated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It then considers the 4 Cs of access that allow communities to exploit the benefits of broadband access: connectivity, capability, content, and context. It also examines trends in household broadband adoption in the United States and proposed remedies for connecting a large population. Finally, it assesses the implications of universal service policy for policy makers.

This chapter denounces the hypercommercialization of the information network and its control by private interests using the marketplace metaphor. It argues that government policy should adopt a justice-based metaphor instead, and focus on quantifying the amount of democratic opportunity created, after reaching consensus on the definition of democratic participation. The chapter begins with an overview of broadband Internet within the context of democracy and its importance in the promotion of social and democratic goals before offering an alternative theoretical framework for evaluating the “success” of broadband policy and creating a measure for “democratic capacity.” It then introduces a vision of broadband as an essential facilitator of democratic discourse and considers some recent attempts made by governments to rethink “development” in non-economic terms. Finally, it discusses the non-economic goals set by the National Broadband Plan in comparison with its quantifiable goals.

In this chapter, Suresh Kotha and Sandip Basu describe the effects of recent technological changes on retailing, in particular the development of the Internet and of overnight delivery services. The Internet and online retailing have given rise to new retailing formats for selling traditional products, such as in the case of Amazon.com and books. In addition, these new technologies have generated new forms of market making. One of the best and most successful examples is eBay.com, which brings together millions of buyers and sellers in a cyber marketplace. Online shopping has also impacted on incumbent retailers, whether they see the Internet as just another marketing channel or a new approach to retailing. Some existing retailers, such as Wal-Mart, are trying largely to use an online presence to leverage their physical assets, but that could change in the future. Online retailers are still in the process of discovering what works and what does not, although it appears that the current global recession has substantially increased people’s willingness to buy and sell online. Broadband connectivity has given a major boost to online retailing. The next stage, just beginning to emerge, may be global online retailing. Finally, the easy availability of information on the Internet, especially with the development of sophisticated search engines, such as Google, has helped create more knowledgeable consumers. Even if they do not buy online, by using the Internet, many consumers now are much better informed than in the past. When potential customers who have searched on the Internet come into automobile dealerships, for instance, they may literally know as much about the car models and pricing as the salesperson.

This chapter first provides an overview of the history of Sino-Philippine relations, noting the strong improvement during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s term as president from 2001-2010. It uses each president’s annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) as well as data on the number of state visits to and from China to illustrate the relative strength of these relations over time. The chapter then provides evidence that, despite much closer relations with the Arroyo administration, major investments from China agreed to by Arroyo were halted due to strong domestic opposition. Given the Philippine’s relatively democratic institutions, opposition in the courts, the legislature, the media, and civil society was able to force the administration to halt these Chinese projects and end efforts at cooperation between the two governments in the South China Sea. The chapter also presents the Philippines case against Chinese claims and activities in the South China Sea before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which the Philippines instituted partially due to the inability of ASEAN to act collectively regarding the disputes. It concludes by noting efforts of Rodrigo Duterte’s administration to improve relations with China but suggests that these too may be hampered by domestic political opposition.

This chapter presents the recent developments in the ICT sector and asserts that it could be an important driver of economic growth in Egypt's real GDP, employment, investment, international trade, and government revenues.

In 2009, digital justice coalitions in Detroit and Philadelphia seized an opportunity to turn a new federal policy into a lasting transformation of the Internet’s role in their local communities. When Congress created the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), the media reform movement marked it as a major, but partial, victory. Considered a victory because the BTOP marked a dramatic shift in federal policy from a reliance on the private market to a more active role for the government in extending the benefits of the Internet to everyone across the United States. Partial, though, because the hard work of devising and enacting a new approach to the Internet remained. In Philadelphia and Detroit, the coalitions used the grant-seeking process to craft visions for how the Internet could better serve their respective communities, and turned these visions into successful proposals for the newly available BTOP grant funds. With the grants, the local communities formed relationships, developed skills and built infrastructure with which to take on new challenges. The digital justice coalitions proved a highly effective strategy for transforming the local digital ecosystem in response to the conditions created by the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.