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This article examines how different forms of digitalization affect inequality in Europe. Using a cross-national dataset of economic development and digitalization across a range of regression specifications including country and time fixed effects, this article explores the heterogeneous relationships of disparate forms of digitalization – human capital, broadband connectivity, integration of digital technology into small and medium enterprises, and digital public services – with income inequality. Fixed country and time effects models show that only the digitalization of human capital and integration of digital technology by SMEs are associated with decreases in income inequality. Causal mediation analysis reveals that tertiary education, despite its oft-cited connection to digital technology uptake, has no causal effect on the pathways through which digitalization of labour and SME operations lower inequality, which are direct. The findings tentatively suggest that there exist informal sources of digital skills training apart from formal tertiary education and point to SMEs as a potentially impactful area for investing in digitalization as pathways for income redistribution. First published online 14 March 2024

Broadband connectivity is now essential to ensure a competitive advantage for any business. The analysis of Scotland’s crucial IT infrastructure contribution supported the authors’ thesis that the Government plays a decisive role in Open Innovation ecosystems. Indeed, IT infrastructures are a clear case of market failure where remote areas will never be served by adequate connectivity without public support. The main contribution is the demonstration that the benefits of public intervention are sometimes required and beneficial to correct market distortions and generate positive spillovers in terms of collaboration in Open Innovation ecosystems. Another relevant contribution is a comprehensive analysis of the consistency of the evolution of the public policies that supported the IT Infrastructure in Scotland. Therefore, pivotal is the study of this case study that can be easily generalised to many other contexts where the Government addressed market failures and, at the same time, contributed to generating collaborative environments.

Passive optical network (PON) has become the leader in delivering broadband high-speed connectivity. The paper introduces a detailed description of PON, its working principle, key features, and their potential applications. In addition, we discuss the types of PON architectures including GPON, EPON, and XG-PON with merits and demerits. Finally, we discuss the technical considerations of PONs in data transmission mechanisms, network design, and component selection. This paper further demonstrates the use of PON technology via a case study on the design and implementation of a bidirectional optical fiber network. Within this project, we went ahead to demonstrate the use of PON components including optical splitters, transmitters, receivers, and power controllers towards the development of an efficient and functional network structure. It mainly covered the results of the project since the PONs appeared to be a promising solution for obtaining high-performing and reliable broadband services.

Broadband connectivity is now essential to ensure a competitive advantage for any business. The analysis of Scotland’s crucial IT infrastructure contribution supported the authors’ thesis that the Government plays a decisive role in Open Innovation ecosystems. Indeed, IT infrastructures are a clear case of market failure where remote areas will never be served by adequate connectivity without public support. The main contribution is the demonstration that the benefits of public intervention are sometimes required and beneficial to correct market distortions and generate positive spillovers in terms of collaboration in Open Innovation ecosystems. Another relevant contribution is a comprehensive analysis of the consistency of the evolution of the public policies that supported the IT Infrastructure in Scotland. Therefore, pivotal is the study of this case study that can be easily generalised to many other contexts where the Government addressed market failures and, at the same time, contributed to generating collaborative environments.

Objective: The objective of the article is to examine direct and indirect channels through which information and communication technology affects exports of services. Research Design & Methods: In this study a linear fixed effects panel regression model with country-specific fixed effects and with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors is fit to the data over the period 2000-2019. The samples cover the data sets for 80 countries, and separately for 44 high-income and 36 low and middle-income economies. Findings: The findings show that the access to traditional and broadband digital connectivity has a positive impact on services exports, revealing a slightly stronger influence of the latter for the advanced economies. Additionally, exports and imports of the ICT goods appear to be complementary to services exports. Implications & Recommendations: The detected dependencies indicate that in a digital era, connectivity infrastructure, as well as international flows of the ICT goods bring about significant effects for services exports. Both findings raise important implications for export-led growth policy that should account for new interdependencies between goods and services, and for further investments in digital infrastructure. Contribution & Value Added: This study contributes to the relevant literature by extending the traditional factor-endowment approach used to explain the impact of information and communication technology on the exports of services. Besides specifying the exports of services as a function of internet market penetration, both a traditional and a broadband one, we consider the exports and the imports of ICT goods as the potential determinants of services exports.

The first 40 Gbit/s multipath data routing is demonstrated in a two-dimensional switch matrix composed of high-order resonant optical switches. Broadband connectivity with on-state bandwidths exceeding 100 GHz, chip losses below 9.0 dB and signal extinction above 20 dB is achieved through the four paths on the diagonal of the 4 × 4 matrix. 40 Gbit/s data routing is demonstrated through three of these paths with power penalties below 0.5 dB for each path.

This book suggests an ecosystem approach to broadband policy that could help in the design of strategies, policies, and programs that support network expansion, have the potential to transform economies, improve the quality and range of services, enable application development, and broaden adoption among users. To identify emerging best practices to nurture this ecosystem, this volume analyzes the Republic of Korea and other leading broadband markets. It identifies three building blocks to support the growth of the broadband ecosystem: defining visionary but flexible strategies, using competition to promote market growth, and facilitating demand. An important but often neglected building block is demand facilitation. This includes raising awareness about the benefits of broadband and improving affordability and accessibility for the largest number of users. Successful countries have often focused on creating a suite of useful applications that increase the relevance of broadband to the widest base of users. Programs to mainstream information and communication technology (ICT) use in education, health, or government have been common.

Ubiquitous access to high-quality broadband connectivity is crucial for digital transformation, economic growth, and productivity. The challenge lies in ensuring sustained long-term investments in broadband infrastructure. This report examines the diversity of actors in the financial landscape of connectivity infrastructure, highlighting trends in broadband network financing and future implications. It focuses on five important groups that invest in and provide funding for broadband infrastructure: communication operators, tower companies, big technology companies, financial asset managers, and the public sector. Communication operators saw revenue growth from 2008 to 2022, but their investment decisions going forward will depend on future returns and interest rates. Meanwhile, tower companies, big technology companies, and financial asset managers are reshaping the connectivity landscape. Finally, the report looks at the public sector, which plays an important role in enabling investments in communication infrastructure.

This book is a compilation of two recently completed works on the convergence of information and communication technology (ICT) (Singh and Raja 2008, 2009). Since then, convergence, the eroding of boundaries among previously separate ICT services, networks, and business practices, has accelerated and deepened. At the time these reports were written, convergence was already a reality and was picking up pace in low-income countries, as in the rest of the world. Now, as this introduction summarizes, broadband networks are reaching deeper into previously unserved areas. The growing number of people connected to broadband networks are consuming, sharing, and creating new multimedia content and applications. And they are doing this on handheld and portable devices that are less costly and do more than before. All sorts of users, governments, businesses, individuals, and ICT firms, are looking to cut costs while capturing greater value. Taken together, these trends indicate that convergence is set to accelerate even through the ongoing global economic downturn. Countries that enable convergence through appropriate policy and regulatory responses will realize significant benefits in terms of expanded access, lower prices, and greater competition. Chapter two of this book focuses on the strategic implications of convergence and possible policy responses. Chapter three focuses on emerging regulatory practices facilitating multiple plays, or the provision of multiple services, such as voice telephony, broadcasting, and Internet access, by one operator over a single communications network, typically telephone or cable television but increasingly mobile and fixed wireless networks. The book concludes by presenting several best-practice principles for regulatory responses to multiple plays and, to some extent, to convergence more generally. Indeed, the main task for regulators is to remove artificial barriers and restrictions that are remnants of legacy regulation, thus clearing the way for market forces to play out, promoting the public interest, and leading to the realization of a range of benefits for users.

Recent evidence suggests that increasing overall service coverage and promoting access to telecommunications services have a high economic benefit. Overall, it is estimated that a ten percent increase in mobile telephony penetration could increase economic growth by 0.81 percent in developing countries, whereas a ten percent increase in broadband penetration could increase economic growth by 1.4 percent. In rural and low-income areas in particular, not only do basic telephony services and broadband access allow population to connect with relatives and friends, but they have also introduced a dramatic increase in productivity and in many cases have become the only way for small and medium enterprises in rural areas to access national and, in some cases, global markets. Moreover, the impact of access to telecommunications in rural areas on health, education, disaster management, and local governments has allowed better and more rapid responses, improved coordination, and more effective public management. It is therefore worthwhile to take a second look at all possible policy options, both conventional mechanisms (some of which underutilized) as well as new approaches, to determine whether some of them may be relevant for the emerging agenda of universal broadband access. This paper will first address the necessary conditions required to adopt a more ambitious universal access policy in developing countries. After that, a brief account of the main relevant trends in the industry will be made, followed by a description of twelve different mechanisms for project implementation and six different mechanisms for funding of universal access strategies. Then, an evaluation of the mechanisms will be carried out to identify the most suitable ones. Finally, some recommendations to policy makers on implementation of the preferred mechanisms are also drawn from the analysis.