A Study of Telecommunication Policies and Broadband Penetration for Sweden and South Korea

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25079/ukhjse.v1n1y2017.pp26-38

Keywords:

Broadband, ICT Policy, Mobile technology standard, South Korea, Sweden

Abstract

Internet broadband technology is the next phase in internet evolution. The emergence of broadband brought many options to internet users. It is evident that in the future, broadband Internet may introduce a big difference in the lives of the public, industry, and the government. However, the diffusion of Broadband is clogged at the regulation crossroads between market, government, and consumer, especially with regard to allow third parties to be involved in building the broadband infrastructure. Controlling access to the development of broadband infrastructure may produce a monopolizing market and limiting the variety and quality of available services. The current study investigates the development of broadband and its penetration in South Korea (the highest country with the access to broadband services), and Sweden (the second highest rate of internet penetration among the OECD countries). The paper overviews the broadband markets in both countries, focusing on their government policies in promoting the technology used and the growth of the market. The paper argues about the challenges facing the market for developing broadband technology, such as increase in the demand and supply for higher speed broadband, increase in the traffic congestion as users spend more time using internet and more data are transferred between individual, software, and applications, etc. the paper finally derives a number of ICT policy objectives and classifies the two countries based on their market approach into: laissez faire (free markets) and markets led by the government’s national plan, with quantified objectives and the regulators instruments strategies to meet the mentioned objectives.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Nabaz T. Khayyat, Department of Business and Management, Kurdistan Business School, University of Kurdistan Hewler, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq.

    Nabaz T. Khayyat is an Engineering Economist, an assistant professor of Economics at the department of Business and Management Sciences (University of Kurdistan Hewler) and a dissertation advisor and a member of external faculty at the University of Liverpool, School of Business, UK. Dr. Nabaz has received two PhDs, first in economics, from Swiss Management University, Zurich, Switzerland, and a second PhD with an MSc in IT Engineering from Seoul National University, College of Engineering, South Korea. In his first PhD thesis, he developed a new model to determine the energy demand in the industrial sector for South Korea using a relatively new methodology in the production risk literature. His second PhD Thesis identified the causal relationship between ICT investment and energy use and its impact on productivity in the industrial sector. Where he developed a new productivity model by adding ICT capital as a quasi-fixed factor of production using again a relatively new methodology called a dynamic factor demand model. [See Academic Profile]

References

Aron, D. J., & Burnstein, D. E. (2003). Broadband adoption in the United States: An empirical analysis. Down to the Wire: Studies in the Diffusion and Regulation of Telecommunications Technologies. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Atkinson, R. D., Correa, D. K., & Hedlund, J. A. (2008). Explaining International Broadband Leadership. Available from: https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1128203. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Atzori, L., Iera, A., & Morabito, G. (2010). The internet of things: Asurvey. Computer Networks, 54(15), 2787-2805.

Baller, S., Soumitra, D., & Bruno, L. (2016). The Global Information Technology Report 2016, from World Economic Forum. Available from: http://www.aciem.org/home/images/Prensa/Newsletter/PDF_Notas_Prensa_Int_Gen_07_Jul_2016.pdf. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Beckert, B. (2017). Contribution to the 28th European Regional International Telecommunications Society (ITS) Conference in Passau, 30, July and 2, August.

Bohlin, A., Gruber, H., & Koutroumpis, P. (2010). Diffusion of new technology generations in mobile communications. Information Economics and Policy, 22(1), 51-60.

Brown, J. S., Lee, S., & Lee, S. (2017). Competition and Policy Issues of Over-the-Top Video in the US and Korea. Available from: https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2944510. [Last accessed on 2017,Oct 16].

Brown, R. S. (2017). We analyze the effect of ICT and R and D on total factor productivity (TFP) growth across different industries in Sweden. R and D alone is significantly associated with contemporaneous TFP growth, thus exhibiting indirect effects.

Although there is no significant short-run association between ICT and TFP, we find a positive association with a lag of seven to eight years. Thus, R and D affect TFP much. Telecommunications Policy, 41(2), 106-119.

Cava-Ferreruela, I., & Alabau-Munoz, A. (2006). Broadband policy assessment: A cross-national empirical analysis. Telecommunications Policy, 30(8), 445-463.

Chapin, J., & Lehr, W. (2011). Mobile Broadband Growth, Spectrum Scarcity, and Sustainable Competition, TPRC 2011. Available from: https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1992423. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

de Ridder, J. (2007). Catching-Up in Broadband-What Will It Take? TPRC. Available from: https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2118202. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Fabritz, N., & Falck, O. (2013). Investment in Broadband Infrastructure Under Local Deregulation: Evidence from the U.K. Broadband Market, CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4277. Available from: https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2280306. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Fransman, M. (2006). Global Broadband Battles: Why the US and Europe Lag While Asia Leads. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Gerli, P., Van der Wee, M., Verbrugge, S., & Whalley, J. (2017). The Involvement of Utilities in the Development of Broadband Infrastructure: A Comparison of EU Case Studies. Germany: ITS.

Kauffman, R. J., & Techatassanasoontorn, A. A. (2005). International diffusion of digital mobile technology: A coupled-hazard statebased approach. Informaation Technology and Managenent, 6(2-3), 253-292.

Khayyat, N. T., & Lee, J. D. (2015). A measure of technological capabilities for developing countries. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 92, 210-223.

Kongaut, C., & Bohlin, E. (2016). Investigating mobile broadband adoption and usage: Acase of smartphones in Sweden. Telematics and Informatics, 33(3), 742-752.

Kushida, K., & Oh, S. Y. (2006). Understanding South Korea and Japan’s spectacular broadband development: Strategic liberalization of the telecommunications sectors. BRIE Working Paper No. 175.Available from: http://www.brie.berkeley.edu/?page_id=46. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Labelle, R. (2005). ICT Policy Formulation and E-strategy Development: A Comprehensive Guidebook. Elsevier, New Delhi.

Lee, S. O., Hong, A., & Hwang, J. (2017). ICT diffusion as a determinant of human progress. Information Technology for Development, 7, 1-19.

Lee, S., & Lee, S. (2014). Early diffusion of smartphones in OECD and BRICS countries: An examination of the effects of platform competition and indirect network effects. Telematics and Informatics, 31(3), 345-355.

Lee, S., Alford, M., Cresson, J., & Gardner, L. (2017). The effects of information communication technology on stock market capitalization: A panel data analysis. Business and Economic Research, 7(1), 261-272.

Lee, S., Brown, J. S., & Lee, S. (2011). A cross-country analysis of fixed broadband deployment: Examination of adoption factors and network effect. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(3), 580-596.

Lee, S., Lee, S., & Chan-Olmsted, S. (2017). An empirical analysis of tablet PC diffusion. Telematics and Informatics, 34(2), 518-527.

Lee, S., Marcu, M., & Lee, S. (2011). An empirical analysis of fixed and mobile broadband diffusion. Information Economics and Policy, 23(3), 227-233.

Liebowitz, S. J., & Margolis, S. E. (1994). Network externality: Anuncommon tragedy. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8(2), 133-150.

Lucchi, N., Ots, M., & Ohlsson, J. (2017). Market structure and innovation policies in Sweden. Innovation Policies in the European News Media Industry. Switzerland: Springer. pp. 191-203.

Ma, Y., & Jia, Z. (2017). Evolution and trends of broadband access technologies and fiber-wireless systems. In: Tornatore, M., Chang, G. K., & Ellinas, G., editors. Fiber-Wireless Convergence in NextGeneration Communication Networks: Systems, Architectures, and Management. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 43-75.

Martha, G. M. (2005). International broadband deployment: The impact of unbundling: Unbundling facing new challenges. Communications and Stratégies (Montpellier), 57, 83-105.

Ministry of Enterprise Energy and Communications. (2011). ICT for Everyone-A Digital Agenda for Sweden. Article No. N2011.19. Available from: http://www.government.se/contentassets/8512aaa8012941deaee5cf9594e50ef4/ict-for-everyone-a-digital-agendafor-sweden. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

OECD. (2011). OECD Guide to Measuring the Information Society 2011. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Park, J. H., Kim, Y. B., & Kim, M. K. (2017). Investigating factors influencing the market success or failure of IT services in Korea. International Journal of Information Management, 37(1), 1418-1427.

Point Topic Ltd. (2016). World Broadband Statistics-Q4 2015. Available from: http://www.point-topic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/PointTopic-Global-Broadband-Statistics-Q4-2015.pdf. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Shin, S., & Koh, J. (2017). Analysis of mobile broadband service penetration in South Korea. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 57(1), 31-38.

Stenfeldt, A., & Andersson, T. (2016). High-speed broadband expansion in rural sweden: Effects on population and workplaces. Independent Thesis Basic Level (Degree of Bachelor) Student Thesis. Available from: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-30381 DiVA database. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].
Sutherland, E. (2017). World class broadband. Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, 19(3), 189.

Ueda, M., Park, Y., Kiyohara, S., & Nakazawa, T. (2006). A Comprataive Study of Telecommunication Policy in Japan, The US, and Korea: Diffusion of Broadband Serrvices, Discussion Paper No. ICP-2006-011. Available from: http://www.officepolaris.co.jp/icp/2006paper/2006011_e.pdf. [Last accessed on 2017, Oct 16].

Varian, H. R. (1999). Market structure in the network age. Understanding the Digital Economy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 137-150.
Cover Image of UKHJSE Volume 1 Number 1 (2017)

Downloads

Published

2017-12-14

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2017): ISSUE ONE

Section

Review Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

How to Cite

A Study of Telecommunication Policies and Broadband Penetration for Sweden and South Korea. (2017). UKH Journal of Science and Engineering, 1(1), 26-38. https://doi.org/10.25079/ukhjse.v1n1y2017.pp26-38

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>