I'm writing this on the plane back from Broadband Cities 2008 in Trikala, Greece.
Lots of interesting content and even more interesting networking. It
was great to finally meet Costas of Broadband Prime fame. Tim was there
also, which made this a conclave of bloggers, especially since Stefano
skyped in from Italy to present his view on next generation access
prospects in his home country.
There were many more meetings, from Gordon Cook who had flown in from the US to talk about digital archives and IPR to Joeri van Bogaert who presented the FTTH council's views on the geographic segmentation of the market and the necessary remedies to extend the reach of next-gen access to all geographies. The CUD people were there as well to express the benefits of municipal broadband by example. The excellent Dave Carter of Manchester Digital Development and brushed the portrait of what is perhaps the most ambitious social broadband program in Europe.
Overall - and ignoring for a minute the gorgeous greek food and heartwarming hospitality (thanks again, Vassilis for driving us back to Athens!) - this was a very interesting conference for me, perhaps as much by the content that wasn't presented as by the content that was. There were probably too many speakers and an overambitious program but that had the strange and interesting consequence of highlighting overlaps in views and, by contrast, the stuff that should have been there but wasn't.
Essentially, the commonalities were as follows, and if you read this blog they will not be new to you:
- ubiquitous broadband is economically beneficial and socially crucial
- triple play is a poor set of applications if we consider the potential of fiber to deliver services
- ftth is a part of the solution to resolve public healthcare and elderly care expenditure issues
- open access is a necessary component of the next-generation infrastructure providing wider societal and economic benefits
So what was absent you will ask? Proof of concept.
I've been mulling this over for the last few weeks but it really struck me in Trikala how much we're all still fueled by faith. We believe that all these benefits we foresee will come to pass if fiber is deployed and if it's done right. But we have a hard time convincing laypeople, politicians and others because it all remains conceptual.
We lack solid studies into the macro-economic benefits of existing broadband. We lack proof of concepts that put hard yet reasonable financial gains in front of these much lauded healthcare and elderly care benefits. We lack financial evaluations of the additional revenues to be generated for those who resist open access most fiercely, ie. telcos.
And I bear my part of that responsability. All talk and little action, that's me. But as an analyst, it should also be my role to work on these proofs of concepts. Let's say that's an early new year's resolution for 2009. I'll keep you posted!
