Orlando Ayala on the importance of broadband

Mr. Orlando Ayala Corporate Vice President, Chairman Emerging Markets Microsoft Corporation.

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The power of technology to drive a country's competitiveness is broadly understood and accepted.
According to a 2009 report by the World Economic Forum, raising broadband penetration in emerging markets to levels currently in Western Europe could add 300-420 billion dollars in GDP and create 10-14 million new jobs. Information Technology infrastructure, and specifically universal access to sufficient, affordable broadband connectivity is integral to strengthening the local economy and ensuring a sustainable future for individuals and businesses.

These technology trends offer an unprecedented opportunity for governments, businesses and citizens to work more efficiently, streamline workflows and services, and ultimately create a more inclusive society. We're still near the beginning of connecting the world and we collectively need to take a broader and bolder view of how technology can help society thrive. As connectivity optimizes how we work, learn, access healthcare, entertainment and other services, broadband access is a must-have for individuals to reap the benefits. Innovation and partnerships built on a strong IT foundation can improve access to quality services for all.
Two trends stand out as great opportunities for industry and government to work together: Cloud Computing and White Spaces.

With continued advancements in process and storage capabilities, IT users are increasingly leveraging cloud computing for services and content beyond email and search. Cloud computing in its many forms creates significant opportunities for cost savings, flexibility, scalability and improved computing performance. At the same time, it represents new challenges related to security, privacy and reliability and raises questions about functional responsibility and legal accountability. Customers, including business and government need to make informed decisions about adoption of cloud services due to the nuances of how these responsibilities can differ over geographies This ongoing debate requires that government and cloud providers at all levels of the stack engage in a meaningful dialogue to ensure a trustworthy cloud computing experience for all users.

White spaces represents making use of unused channels in the TV spectrum to provide wireless broadband access while ensuring that there is no harmful interference to current TV users. TV white spaces are particularly valuable since signals in this spectrum can better penetrate walls and trees, and are able to cover greater distances, enabling a service provider to cover a bigger service area with less equipment. Market-oriented and internet-friendly policies are increasingly likely to generate investment in new infrastructure and innovative solutions for providing access to lesser developed regions.
A Booz & Company analysis indicated that countries that perennially ranked in the top tier of broadband penetration recorded twice the rate of GDP growth of countries that consistently ranked in the bottom tier. Additionally, boosting broadband penetration by 10 percent translated into a 1.5 percent increase in the country's labor productivity— representing an opportunity to more efficiently use a constrained resource as countries strive to bolster their competitive advantage and meaningfully advance overall national competitiveness.

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Science & Technology

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