Archive for the Global Work Category
Posted on July 9, 2010 by Atul
I served on the board of Rural Sourcing Inc., which was founded by Kathy White, Former CIO – Cardinal Health, until this firm was acquired by Clarkson Consulting. A very viable alternative!
I was very impressed by the quality of resources in rural locations such as Jonesboro, Greenville etc. in states such as Arkansas, New Mexico and North Carolina.
Forget India, Outsource To Arkansas.
By CNN at July 08, 2010
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Looking for skilled, low-cost labor? Forget about India and China. How about Jonesboro, Ark.?
As the national unemployment rate hovers near 10%, some companies are starting to eye job-hungry areas of the country as prime candidates for the kind of outsourced work that once would have gone overseas.
Dubbed “ruralsourcing,” “rural outsourcing” and “onshoring,” the practice relies on two simple premises: Smaller towns need jobs, and they offer a cheaper cost of living than urban centers. So businesses that outsource work to these areas can expect to pay less — rates are often as much as 25% to 50% lower — than if they were hiring urbanites with comparable skills. More>>
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Tags: arkansas, india, outsourcing
Posted on July 5, 2010 by Atul
Danville Express : McNerney introduces bill to fight outsourcing.
Here we go again! Another politician working on making America less competitive and forcing American companies to have more disadvantages as they compete globally.
Jobs are not created by putting more hurdles in front of companies. Jobs are created by providing incentives for companies to invest in communities and new opportunities.
Has anyone done a study of how many jobs are being created by foreign outsourcing companies in the U.S.A.? Has anyone done a study to see what impact outsourcing is having on the fortunes of the buyers? Are they competing better and thus creating more jobs and better futures for their employees?
We are lot more connected than when most of these politicians started their careers. They need to spend more time understanding the connectedness of our world and how one needs to compete NOW!
Posted on June 30, 2010 by Atul
Leading Virtual Teams to Real Results – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review. 11:23 AM Wednesday June 30, 2010
by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd |
If a leader is like a conductor, as Peter Drucker said, then are virtual leaders like virtual conductors? In this video, Eric Whitacre conducts a virtual choir in a performance of “Lux Aurumque.” This moving virtual symphony, a collaboration between more than 185 singers from 12 countries, has been viewed more than a million times since it was uploaded in March.
As Whitacre describes in his blog, “I made my own conductor track, filming it in complete silence, hearing the music only in my head. Then I watched the video and played in the piano accompaniment part to my conductor track. Then I offered the sheet music as a free download. As singers began posting their individual tracks, I called for ‘auditions’ for the soprano solo.” Whitacre had already created a different video, called“Sleep,” where he cut different tracks of remote singers together. The goal with “Lux Aurumque” was to have the singers — none of whom could hear each other, of course — actually responding to his direction.
“There is a lot of rubato in my conducting (slowing down, speeding up) and some very specific dynamic gestures. And the singers responded beautifully… When I saw the finished video for the first time I actually teared up. The intimacy of all the faces, the sound of the singing, the obvious poetic symbolism about our shared humanity and our need to connect; all of it completely overwhelmed me.”
If a conductor can work virtually, bringing over 100 musicians together in a way that recognized the individuals even more than a live performance might, what can virtual managers do to create such excellence of performance while touching our “shared humanity?”
The reality of virtual leadership is apparent. Teams are increasingly spread across space and time, providing the benefit of obtaining talent anywhere in the world and allowing 24-7 work progression. However, virtual workers can feel a sense of isolation, and building bonded teams becomes more difficult when there are few opportunities to meet face-to-face.
Bob Taccini, a 52-year-old vice president of finance at Cisco Systems, has faced this situation personally. Although self-described as one of the last people to adopt a new fad, he says, “When we cut our travel budgets, using social technologies helped meet my need for personalization with my team. Even when I had a travel budget, I could maybe only get to some of our sites once a year. Management now requires spanning distance, even though we can’t span time. Certainly, as we continue to build a multi-generation workspace, social technologies will become more and more the norm.”
For Taccini, the last five years — marked by constantly changing market conditions, the introduction of more distributed leadership throughout Cisco, and the increased availability of virtual meeting technologies — have demanded a change in how he leads. During this time, he has become an adept user of social technologies. Now he conducts virtual offsite meetings, using TelePresence and WebEx, with blogs, discussion groups, and online forums as needed. TelePresence is richer than e-mail or voice mail and feels more real and physical because participants are able to see the other people involved.
One of the most effective tools Taccini has used is a monthly video blog (vlog). “It has been one of the best ways to communicate, supplemented by calls with everyone in my reporting chain,” he said. “Even though it’s not two-way real time, I get more participation from the vlog. My team sends questions, and they also have Web spaces to create collaboration spaces.”
Here are some tips of how leaders are using social technologies to work virtually:
- Rich media, such as live video streams or virtual meetings, can make virtual interactions feel more realistic;
- Frequent contact keeps connections to virtual workers fresh;
- Mixing media, such as the use of forums, vlogs, blogs, and discussion groups allows people to interact in a style most comfortable to them
- Meeting face-to-face at least once helps create a bond that can be connected virtually;
- Simple technologies, such as a personal phone call can help motivate a virtual worker, knowing they are not out of sight, out of mind.
Surely many of you are facing this new world of either working or leading virtually. What has worked for you? What do you wish your manager/team leader would do to help you feel more connected to the rest of the team? Share your experience here so we can learn collectively on how to build a high-performing virtual team.
Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd are cofounders of Future Workplace. Jeanne is the author of two books on corporate universities and hosts the blog newlearningplaybook.com. Karie was formerly the chief learning officer of Sun Microsystems and head of learning and development at HJ Heinz. They are the authors of the HBR article “Mentoring Millennials” and the book The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today.
Posted on June 5, 2010 by Atul
Global Services -Voice-based BPO Industry is Reviving.
Voice-based services or call center services– the offering that actually started it all for the BPO industry in countries like India and the Philippines, has changed a lot since inception. The very purpose of outsourcing this service has undergone a radical change.
“Initially, clients preferred to turn the work to service providers because the service providers offered a cost advantage or some type of ‘peak volume overflow’ capacity that the clients could not staff themselves,” says Sid Pai, Partner & Managing Director, TPI India.
Offshore call centers offering voice-based services were the perfect answer to this and one saw a massive build up of call centers in the early part of the decade. Very soon, the industry matured. Many call centers reached a point where they couldn’t scale up or they couldn’t retain key clients. This led to a shake-up in the call center industry, especially in India, where many of them were snapped up by IT services companies ( e.g. Infosys-Progeon, Wipro-Spectramind, IBM-Daksh, etc) seeking to enter the BPO industry.
BPO’s addressing the voice market had growth challenges. The way out was to shift the focus to other areas of BPO like finance/ accounting, mortgage, insurance and other niche sectors like KPO and LPO. Says Atul Vashishtha, CEO of Neo Advisory, “The market for non-voice services was expected to grow faster, as the call center sector was more mature and significantly developed .”
Revival and New Hope
The voice-based BPO industry is reviving. “Investments in technology platforms, process improvements, equipment and facilities and acquiring specific vertical capabilities, made by the service providers are outpacing those by the client. Service providers are moving up the value chain,” says Pai.
Voice- based services continue to expand their domain and tailor their offerings according to the needs of their clients. “Today customers are looking at unified communications to integrate various communication systems with their business applications to improve their business processes. These improved business processes lead to higher productivity for employees and greater customer satisfaction which in turn results in higher revenues and profits,” says Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC.
Expanding scope of services
Clients today have access to a wide spectrum of services under voice. “Cisco subscribes to a range of services covering the entire gamut from technology services desk for customers and employees, human resources support for employees , escalation options for customers for quick access and marketing access to and from Cisco,” says V.C. Gopalratnam, Vice President (IT) and Chief Information Officer, Globalisation, Cisco, on the internal deployment of voice services in the company.
Providers are also developing expertise in niche areas within voice services. Andrew Kokes, Vice President of The Americas, Sitel, cites an example. “Revenue generation is one of the key metrics that Sitel is measured against for most customer care programs (revenue per month, revenue per call), and is a large part of our core expertise. More than half of all Sitel-managed inbound programs incorporate some form of upsell or cross-sell offer.”
The maturity of this segment allows outsourcing to many more locations as compared to emerging areas of BPO and thus finding price points and capabilities according to the specific needs of the client. “In all cases the services (we subscribe to) have a “follow the sun model” with sufficient geographical spread to cover all time zones effectively,” says Gopalratnam.
Collaboration and integration- the new formulas of growth
Collaboration and integration of communication platforms and capabilities are the new formulas of growth in this sector. “Collaboration is slowly moving towards new forms such as Enterprise Social Software, UC as a Service, TelePresence etc. Cisco’s Unified Contact Center solution…. provides a VoIP contact center solution that enables organizations to integrate inbound and outbound voice applications with Internet applications, including real-time chat, Web collaboration, and email. This integration provides for unified capabilities, helping a single agent support multiple interactions simultaneously, regardless of the communications channel the customer has chosen,” elaborates Zia.
Voice services are set to move to a higher degree of integration at multiple levels. Kokes says, “Voice-based contact center services are rapidly moving beyond traditional “voice” communication to include a blend of voice and live-chat (i.e., text based) engagement. In such arrangements, contact center agents are provided with real-time indicators of a website visitor’s propensity to purchase, and can invite that online consumer to chat via IM before the customer navigates away from the site. Such a model also opens the door to Pay-for-Performance client arrangements, whereby the call center fees for service can be aligned with the program’s overall success in producing incremental online sales.”
Zia also sees integration and improved technology as growth drivers for this sector. He says, “Enterprises will move beyond contact center to a customer interaction network with hosted contact centers for both enterprise customers and service providers. In a central office or data center, service providers will host the contact center infrastructure software, which will be shared by multiple business customers. Subscribing business customers will have IP or time-division multiplexing (TDM) infrastructures or a combination of the two.”
A suite of integrated services can also be introduced, he says, like virtual call centers, network routing with computer telephony integration (CTI), networked interactive voice response (IVR), intelligent call routing (routing calls between contact centers based on call context information, agent availability, and customer information from databases) and multimedia applications such as Web collaboration and e-mail response management.
With so much innovation happening and set to happen in this ‘traditional’ sector of BPO, analysts are optimistic of its transformational capabilities for businesses. “(Its potential to transform) looks evident given the investments made by the service providers on technology and platforms. In addition, leading service providers have built modern global services delivery infrastructures and implemented best practices that allow them to effectively and efficiently leverage their scale, volume, global capacity and technology to better serve their clients.” says Pai. To this, Atul Vashishtha adds that this is a market that will become increasingly global and Tier 2 players will need to specialize to succeed.
Posted on June 4, 2010 by Atul
The Problem with Schumers Plan to Tax Offshore Call Center Use – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership.
When will we learn? Tax and harass. That’s no way to support America’s competitiveness. We need to continue to promote free trade while working to create jobs in our country in new sectors by supporting innovation not stifling it.
Posted on May 15, 2010 by Atul
I recently did a webinar on Nearshore destination: Costa Rica – Destination for multi-function centers. We have been monitoring this destination since 2000 and continue to be impressed by it. Below is an article published by Global Services magazine.
Global Services -Will Costa Rica Stand the Test of Time?.
Costa Rica emerged on the outsourcing scene with a $300 million investment by Intel in 1996. But it was with the nearshoring wave that this tiny Central American country found its true calling. Since then, it has remained accurate to the literal translation of its name-’Rich Coast’, with many companies choosing it as their preferred destination.
So what is it that has attracted names like IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Western Union and most recently, WNS in 2009 and Amway in 2010 to it?
“A healthy talent pool with over 60,000 graduates each year with English and Spanish language capabilities, proximity to the US and similar time zones, well-established location for BPO services with over 50 shared services and contact services centers and existing opportunities from clients and prospects that require Spanish language capabilities are some of the reasons why we chose to set up our delivery center there in 2009,” says Steve Reynolds, Managing Director, WNS-North America. “Our delivery center in Costa Rica serves global clients with North American operations that require Spanish language capability.”
According to Irving Soto, Director, Investment Promotion, of the country’s investment promotion board CINDE, “Costa Rica has become an important nearshoring destination for companies in the U.S. as well as strategic offshore locations for European companies. We are also seeing an increasing interest by Indian companies that require nearshore access to North America.”
The increase in the Hispanic population in the United States (estimated to be over 40 million in 2008), coupled with the Latin American region’s language capabilities, large labor pool, lower costs, and geographic proximity has led U.S. corporations to establish contact centers there. But the availability of graduates equipped with English and technical skills, due to the strong emphasis on education there, allows multiple functions of a company to be outsourced to Costa Rica. “Our Costa Rica center provides the complete suite of WNS services including finance and accounting (F&A), customer care, research and analytics, and domain specific processes in both English and Spanish.” says Reynolds.
However, other countries are fast catching up, says Saugata Sengupta, Senior Analyst at Tholons. “Costa Rica has to face stiff competition from larger countries with similar value proposition like Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The country does not have the large scale to compete with these countries which they are trying to counter by providing excellent support from the government and incentives to the companies looking to establish in their country.”
A small labor pool resulting in difficulties in scaling up operations, inflationary pressures and salaries moving upwards at double-digit rates (between 10 – 15%, according to Neo Advisory’s Latin America Contact Center Landscape White Paper) annually is pointed out as the main hurdle for outsourcing to Costa Rica. According to Sengupta, “The primary factor which Costa Rica should monitor is its small labor pool which is limiting what it can offer to lower-end BPO services. With these BPO services (back-office, contact support and shared services) being in high demand in the world market, Costa Rica must look at addressing its labor pool concerns to better capitalize on market opportunity.”
“We are a relatively young country so our labor force is growing at a faster rate (3%) than the general population (1.9%).” explains Soto. Atul Vashistha, Chairman and Founder, Neo Group and Neo Advisory believes that planning is the solution. He says, “One can do a number of scalable things here over a period of time with planning.”
A Tholons research points out that a large population and labor force do not necessarily guarantee scalability – the pivotal point now for labor scalability is quality of labor force and thus employability.
According to CINDE, $21 million were allocated in 2009 to English and IT Training in the four main universities and INA, an autonomous national training institute. Costa Rica Multilingual, a comprehensive program to develop bilingual capabilities in the country’s labor market, was also launched. Besides, a number of language and IT training programs have been started to augment the skilled labor pool.
With regard to infrastructure, Costa Rica has several industrial parks located in the Greater Metropolitan Area. The Free Trade Zone Regime gives a wide range of benefits and incentives to activities directly related to the export of services and/or products from Costa Rica. However the recent change in the Free Trade Zone System has eliminated subsidies on certain exports.
Presently all the talent pool for outsourcing is attracted to San Jose, other cities have not gained prominence since they have much smaller populations.
Says Sengupta,“With the multinationals locating in Costa Rica as well as increasing local investments supporting the outsourcing industry, the government has been quick to augment spending on infrastructure. Though much has been done with the development of Costa Rica’s infrastructure, further improvement is still needed particularly in cities outside San Jose.”
Costa Rica, despite its small labor pool and rising salary levels, has continued to attract companies on the strength of its quality labor force. But with other countries offering larger labor pools, low cost and similar language skills, whether Costa Rica will be able to maintain its dominant position in the Latin American outsourcing scene remains to be seen.
Posted on May 1, 2010 by Atul
The following illustrates some of the reasons why some countries are not able to capitalize on the fast growing ITO and BPO needs. What will it take for leaders in these countries to work to change laws, to make the business environment stable and inviting, and thus creating jobs and sustainable economic vitality?
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The article below is from www.punchng.com
Nigeria failed to make an inroad into the huge global outsourcing business because of the harsh operating environment characterised by lack of proper legal framework, poor security network and inadequate power infrastructure.The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, stated this in Abuja on Thursday, while briefing newsmen on the forthcoming e-Nigeria 2010 Summit.According to him, overtures made by the Federal Government to Nigerians in the Diaspora and foreign businesses to outsource some of their processes failed to produce the required result because of different issues the nation had to contend with.He said, “We have a problem why they outsourcing outfits have not come. If they come here and they are duped, who will pay? We need a proper framework for outsourcing to take root here. “We don’t have a cyber security law in the country. Nigeria is among the top six countries with network security problems, which have to be addressed. We need a framework for cyber security. We have a lot of problems, which we are solving.” He added, “Another problem militating against outsourcing in the country is security. I don’t want to talk much about this. “Then there is the power problem. I went to Singapore in 2007. I visited D-Link. They were interested in investing in the country, but were scared by our power problem. I am happy that practical steps are being taken to solve the nation’s power problem.”Angaye also disclosed that the IT development agency was in the process of establishing two software development centres in the country.
via The Punch:: Why Nigeria failed in outsourcing – NITDA.
Posted on April 30, 2010 by Atul
Global Services -Outsourcing Firms in the Gulf Boot Up.
Traditionally outsourcing companies have provided service for back-office operations. But countries such as the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco have been making efforts to build up infrastructure, people and funds to grow the sector. And industry experts believe the outsourcing industry has been growing at 20 per cent annually in the Middle East.
Amin Khaireldin, Strategy Advisor and Board Member at Egypt-based Information Technology Industry Development Agency (Itida)Information Technology Industry Development Agency, said: “In Egypt we put resources in a business park-like Smart Village. From the premises services such as financial analytics are conducted by 200 analysts for a Dubai-based company. Technical as well as packaged implementation services (PIS) are the focus.”
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is another area gaining relevance in the region. BPO involves the contracting of operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. “Gulf-based companies are now considering taking BPO services from outsourcing firms in the Gulf. And Itida has been making investments towards acquiring international standards in this segment,” said Khaireldin.
IT service companies such as Patni Computer Services (PCS) have noticed this change in this region. Derek Kemp, President (Emea), PCS, said: “The Gulf economies have been building resources for a three-tier model. This is mainly onshore, nearshore and offshore. They are trying to inject the culture for IT services. However, not all countries in the GCC are human intensive as the scale is not available. But the growth potential is immense, for instance, a country like Egypt has been able to grow in its GDP because of outsourcing. The opportunities from oil, gas, telecom and financial services are immense.”
According to Kemp, long-term contracts in outsourcing have started happening, which was not the case earlier. “Traditionally the market in the Gulf depended on buying rather than a service model. Therefore, now even companies based in the Gulf are looking at working on an outsourced model. This attitude change will raise the profile of the region.”
He also explained that although the market size is small the ICT (Information and computing technology) spend in the region would help other sectors grow. “The ICT spend in the region is the same as in the UK. Markets are flat in the UK currently and US is starting to pick up while continental Europe has picked up in offshoring.”
Khaireldin said the UAE is not human intensive, but it provides high-end financial services. “For low- and mid-level services human capital is essential along with low labour costs and incentives.”
Gulf states are looking at upgrading skills of graduates in the BPO and PIS segments. “PIS is expected to hit $3 billion (Dh11bn) by 2020 from the current $200 million in the region,” Khaireldin said.
Source: zawya.com
Posted on April 8, 2010 by Atul
The “A” word attrition is back | Outsource Portfolio.
The “A” word (attrition) is back in outsourcing companies
With uncertainty easing, attrition, the biggest nightmare for HR managers in IT services and outsourcing companies, is on the horizon while for some firms, it is already here. So just how are the big 3 IT services firms faring on the attrition and hiring front? Consider the following attrition rates (as of January):
- Infosys. Attrition at Infosys rose from 10.9% the last quarter to 11.6%. However, a March Wall Street Journal article quoted a CLSA Asia-Pacific report as saying that there are unconfirmed rumors that 4,000-4,200 employees have resigned at Infosys for the month of February alone – well beyond the 1,200 employees who should be resigning each month (as of December 31, Infosys had about 109,882 employees). Nevertheless, it was also noted that Infosys had the largest bench strength in the industry at almost 20,000 free resources.
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Attrition at TCS has been stable at around 11.5% – although company officials expect this rate to rise. However, the Wall Street Journal noted in February that TCS will go on a hiring spree and hire up to 30,000 new employees after the next fiscal year begins on April 1. This is on top of the 11,500 planned hires for the first quarter of 2010. It was also noted that 70% of new hires for the new fiscal year will be fresh graduates and more than 2,000 employees will be recruited from outside India.
- Wipro. Wipro had an attrition rate of about 13.4% – up from an average of 8.9% over the past three quarters. Hence, the Hindu Business Line noted that they were planning a salary hike for February along with promotions to help prevent attrition from rising further while recruitment initiatives would happen on a demand basis and include a mix of campus hires and science graduates along with experienced talent. Meanwhile, the Hindu Business Line quoted Girish Paranjpe, the Joint-CEO of Wipro’s IT Services group, as saying that the company’s bench strength was around 7,500 to 8,000 on an employee base of about 103,000 while the industry bench strength standard is usually twice that.
However, another Hindu Business Line article noted that the brunt of any rise in attrition rates will likely be borne by mid-size software outsourcers who could see attrition rates reach the 15% level. Moreover and since the big players have mostly not been hiring for some time, employees with midsize firms are more likely to consider jumping to larger companies if they are offered the right opportunity.
Meanwhile, utilization rates (that is, the number of employees billed per hundred verses those who are on the bench) are also increasing at the big 3 IT services firms. According to the Hindu Business Line, utilization rates rose from 67.3% to 68.8% at Infosys, 73.6% to 77.2% at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and 70.8% to 73.2% at Wipro.
Nevertheless, as both utilization and attrition rates rise, its time for companies to once again think about long-term strategies for retaining employees. As Raman Roy, the chairman and managing director of BPO firm Quattro, noted in the Financial Express, meddling with salary and benefits is a short-term strategy (he chooses to focus on in-house training to create an efficient group of high achievers) while attrition is merely a symptom and not a disease. In other words, its the symptom of an increasingly healthier job market and economy for outsourcing.
Posted on April 2, 2010 by Atul
Source: Huffington Post
Eric Ehrmann: Big Broadband Brazil.
With election season underway president Lula’s program expanding Brazil’s Internet infrastructure has gained credibility across the political spectrum. Regardless of who wins the presidency in October the program helps government and the private sector work faster and smarter. Grabbing first mover advantage among G-20 nations, Big Broadband Brazil is providing high speed backbone for all types of business processes, creating jobs, and securing Brazil’s future as an economic and agricultural power.
Lula’s strategy, which has seen Brazil’s internet population increase from 8 million to 60 million since taking office in 2003, was designed to attract international capital to complement local business and state investments. But it isn’t linked to Davos-style globalism, which seeks to roll back the influence of the state and the social contracts between governments and people in the name of “free markets” and the US notion of “Internet democracy.” Regardless of how much good advocates say this model offers, it’s the same laissez-faire paradigm that caused the current economic crisis .
Lula’s plan is working because it features the nation-state as the dealmaker, not the lap dog the Davos crowd prefers. Brazil respects state and free market players, acknowledges their differences and creates space for them to co-exist and compete.
On the broadband front, the government of Brazil plans to generate public and private investments totaling $14.9 billion and add upwards of 30 million fixed lines to the national Internet infrastructure by 2014.
Carlos Slim of Mexico, who already controls Claro Telecom in Brazil, is considering a $10 billion investment in the mobile market that could help the government reach its goal of generating 60 million new connections in the next four years.
Brazil’s strategic ally in Europe, France, is rolling out a 4.5 billion Euro bond issue to finance the first big upgrade in its national broadband infrastructure. Private investors and broadband providers are expected to put up matching funds, with the goal of providing 70 percent of the French internet population with access to 100 mbps by 2019. Currently 94% are ADSL subscribers.
Lula’s vision is having a game-changing effect, with Brazil hosting conferences headlining major players who formerly preferred Northern Hemisphere venues to promote and discuss investing in the future of the Web.
The Financial Times of London and Valor Economica, a major Brazilian business newspaper, are hosting an infrastructure summit May 10-11 Rio. And US internet consulting firm Gartner Research is featuring Brasscom, the Brazilian Association of Internet and Communication Companies as part of its 2010 Summit in Sao Paulo and Rio June 8-10 that will discuss Brazil’s expanding role as a provider of Internet back office operations in the Americas.
Brasscom has also taken the lead reaching out to counterpart national information technology (IT) associations in Russia (Russoft) and China (CCIIP) and companies like Intel and SAP to coordinate planning and development of new infrastructure, software and education initiatives. The resulting baseline will provide a common focus for the BRIC nations in the new knowledge based economy, promote job creation and ramp up best approaches for servicing the projected billion users in the world’s largest mobile market.
In Washington meanwhile, cognitive dissonance between Team Obama, major internet industry players, financiers and K Street lobbyists makes crafting a national internet policy problematic.
A recently released 360 page FCC report on bandwidth to support the growing knowledge economy has less to do with projecting the US leadership than created the Internet than with supporting the online entertainment industry that helped put president Obama in office. Slate Magazine recently characterized the US broadband network as being “crummy.”
China is making tremendous investment in its broadband infrastructure. But the culture of complaint fostered by Google’s Cold War-style brinkmanship overlooks the fact that China needs to weave Chinese style “Internet democracy” into its social fabric at its its own pace in order to avoid domestic political developments that would not bode well for the United States.
This classic debate between state power and US-based globalism reveals that the speed at which China can monetize the potential of the world’s largest digital economy will never be fast enough for Google’s Eric Schmidt and others who want to convert their prospective China footprints into a bankable asset that could loosen up money in today’s tight credit market.
Government infrastructures historically have been tagged by international media for setting prices in telecom and internet markets. But Lula, who globalist pundits and NGOs chide for his Workers Party “leftist” orientation, went outside the box and brought competition into the mix. While Lula’s government hoped for the best, the result has been rate creep by private telecoms and internet service providers that has burned Brazilian consumers.
A study by Anatel, the national telecommunications oversight agency, has found that private broadband operators have been manipulating prices and not offering speeds as advertised. Brazil’s Supreme Court recently handed down a decision that in the end will likely penalize those companies. And Bloomberg is reporting that the Lula government is revitalizing state-controlled Telbras to organize an $11 billion public-private partnership and launch a broadband plan that will cost Brazilians between about $17 (30 Reals) per month, less than half of what most pay now.
On the eve of the dot com bubble the US represented 66 percent of the world internet population. Today, it represents just 15 percent and growth in North America is flat. In South America, internet growth is vibrant and Big Bandwidth Brazil is a reminder of why strong government oversight is necessary to mediate the interests of globalist telecoms and internet industries.
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