This book explains why Asia leads the broadband revolution while the United States and Europe struggle to keep up.

Explores broadband adoption and the digital divide through a global perspective. Presents research on constructs such as relative advantage, utilitarian outcomes, hedonic outcomes, and service quality. Provides multicultural insight into what factors influence consumers' decisions to adopt broadband.

In an era where digital connectivity is as essential as electricity, "The Broadband Battle: Wireless vs. Fiber" offers an in-depth exploration of the two leading technologies that drive the modern internet—wireless broadband and fiber optic networks. This book is a thorough investigation into the technological, economic, and social dimensions of this ongoing competition, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of how these technologies shape our world... What the Book Covers: Historical Context: The book begins by tracing the evolution of broadband technology, from the early days of dial-up to the emergence of high-speed internet. It sets the stage for understanding the rise of wireless and fiber as the primary means of delivering broadband connectivity. Technical Breakdown: Readers will gain insight into the workings of both wireless and fiber technologies. The book explains how wireless networks, including 5G, transmit data through radio waves, and how fiber optics use light to achieve unparalleled speed and reliability. The pros and cons of each technology are analyzed, helping readers grasp their strengths and limitations. Infrastructure and Deployment: The book delves into the complexities of building and maintaining broadband infrastructure. It discusses the challenges of deploying wireless networks, such as the need for extensive cell tower networks and spectrum management, versus the labor-intensive process of laying fiber optic cables and addressing the last mile problem. Economic and Social Impact: The choice between wireless and fiber has significant economic implications. This book examines the costs of deployment, the impact on consumer pricing, and how these technologies affect the digital divide. It also explores how broadband access influences economic development, job creation, and societal progress. Future Trends: As technology continues to evolve, so does the broadband landscape. The book looks ahead to the future of both wireless and fiber, considering advancements like 6G, terabit-speed fiber, and the role of artificial intelligence in network management. It also touches on the geopolitical stakes of broadband leadership, particularly in the context of global power dynamics. Wireless vs. Fiber: A Comparative Analysis: The book concludes by weighing the case for each technology. While wireless offers mobility and rapid deployment, fiber excels in speed, reliability, and long-term investment potential. The book suggests that the future may not be a zero-sum game but rather a hybrid approach where both technologies coexist and complement each other... Who Should Read This Book? "The Broadband Battle: Wireless vs. Fiber" is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of technology and connectivity. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a professional in the telecom industry, a policymaker, or just a curious reader, this book provides valuable insights into the forces shaping the digital age. It offers a balanced perspective on one of the most critical technological debates of our time, helping readers understand the implications of the choices we make today for the internet of tomorrow.

A groundbreaking study of one of the most crucial yet least understood issues of the twenty-first century: the governance of the Internet and its content

The final section considers the political ramifications of information technology for critical societal debates ranging from privacy to intellectual property. The contributors to the book map out how the digital revolution shakes up politics, creating new economic and political winners and losers. In order to do so, they connect theories of political economy to the implications of digital technology for international as well as national markets.Attempts to construct a framework for analyzing the international digital era: one that examines the ability of political actors to innovate and experiment in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constraints posed by digital technology. This book examines the reaction of nations to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change.How do high wage countries stay rich in a global digital economy? "How Revolutionary was the Revolution" constructs a framework for analyzing the international digital era: one that examines the ability of political actors to innovate and experiment in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constraints posed by digital technology. In order to assess the revolutionary nature of the digital era, this book takes four overlapping approaches. First, it examines the reaction of nations, specifically Finland, Japan, and emerging markets, to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change. This section identifies both successful and failed national experiments intended to deal with these dual pressures. Second, it assesses corporate attempts to leverage digital technology to reorganize work. A broad range of issues including off-shoring, open source production systems, and knowledge management are addressed. Third, devoting detailed analysis to the case of mobile telephones, the book offers insights into the political economy of market evolution in the digital era.

The biomedical industry, which includes biopharmaceuticals, genomics and stem cell therapies, and medical devices, is among the fastest growing worldwide. While it has been an economic development target of many national governments, Asia is currently on track to reach the epicenter of this growth. What accounts for the rapid and sustained economic growth of biomedicals in Asia? To answer this question, Kathryn Ibata-Arens integrates global and national data with original fieldwork to present a conceptual framework that considers how national governments have managed key factors, like innovative capacity, government policy, and firm-level strategies. Taking China, India, Japan, and Singapore in turn, she compares each country's underlying competitive advantages. What emerges is an argument that countries pursuing networked technonationalism (NTN) effectively upgrade their capacity for innovation and encourage entrepreneurial activity in targeted industries. In contrast to countries that engage in classic technonationalism—like Japan's developmental state approach—networked technonationalists are global minded to outside markets, while remaining nationalistic within the domestic economy. By bringing together aggregate data at the global and national level with original fieldwork and drawing on rich cases, Ibata-Arens telegraphs implications for innovation policy and entrepreneurship strategy in Asia—and beyond.

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.

This study investigates whether the existing regulatory framework governing the telecommunications sector in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa effectively deals with emerging competition-related concerns in the liberalised sector. Using Uganda as a case study, it analyses the relevant provisions of the law governing competition in the telecommunications sector, and presents three key findings: Firstly, while there is comprehensive legislation on interconnection and spectrum management, inefficient enforcement of the legislation has perpetuated concerns surrounding spectrum scarcity and interconnection. Secondly, the legislative framework governing anti-competitive behaviour, though in line with the established principles of competition law, is not sufficient. Specifically, the framework is not equipped to govern the conduct of multinational telecommunications groups that have a strong presence in the telecommunications sector. Major factors hampering efficient competition regulation include Uganda’s sole reliance on sector-specific competition rules, restricted available remedies, and a regulator with limited experience of enforcing competition legislation. The weaknesses in the framework strongly suggest the need to adopt an economy-wide competition law. Lastly, wireless technology is the main means through which the population in Uganda accesses telecommunications services. Greater emphasis should be placed on regulating conduct in the wireless communications markets.

Today's China is governed by a new economic model that marks a radical break from the Mao and Deng eras; it departs fundamentally from both the East Asian developmental state and its own Communist past. It has not, however, adopted a liberal economic model. China has retained elements of statist control even though it has liberalized foreign direct investment more than any other developing country in recent years. This mode of global economic integration reveals much about China’s state capacity and development strategy, which is based on retaining government control over critical sectors while meeting commitments made to the World Trade Organization. In China's Regulatory State, Roselyn Hsueh demonstrates that China only appears to be a more liberal state; even as it introduces competition and devolves economic decisionmaking, the state has selectively imposed new regulations at the sectoral level, asserting and even tightening control over industry and market development, to achieve state goals. By investigating in depth how China implemented its economic policies between 1978 and 2010, Hsueh gives the most complete picture yet of China's regulatory state, particularly as it has shaped the telecommunications and textiles industries. Hsueh contends that a logic of strategic value explains how the state, with its different levels of authority and maze of bureaucracies, interacts with new economic stakeholders to enhance its control in certain economic sectors while relinquishing control in others. Sectoral characteristics determine policy specifics although the organization of institutions and boom-bust cycles influence how the state reformulates old rules and creates new ones to maximize benefits and minimize costs after an initial phase of liberalization. This pathbreaking analysis of state goals, government-business relations, and methods of governance across industries in China also considers Japan’s, South Korea’s, and Taiwan’s manifestly different approaches to globalization.