What is the right policy mix for effective broadband application stimulation?

Ovum completed a consulting project, BEACON, funded by the European Commission 6th Framework Programme, the New Working Environments Unit. The project was undertaken by a consortium, led by Ovum, consisting of Ovum (UK), TNO-ICT (the Netherlands), Dublin City University (Ireland) and the University of Aarhus (Denmark).

The focus of this project was to analyse future broadband trends, construct four scenarios of the broadband future for the EU25 and provide policy recommendations, policy research issues and a policy support tool applicable at the European Union (EU) and member state (MS) levels. We focused on European policy for innovation in four broadband application areas: eGovernment, eBusiness, eContent and eWork.

The four scenarios of the broadband future in 2010 we developed are called:

• The iNetWorked Society
  
  
• It’s the Economy Stupid!
  
  
• Close, but no Cigar
  
  
• The Doldrums.
  
  

Each one represents a plausible future in which any member state could find itself. The i2010 vision is best represented by the iNetWorked Society scenario.

The question we addressed in undertaking the policy analysis was “Does the existing European ICT policy mix effectively address the bottlenecks and opportunities highlighted by each scenario, and thereby stimulate innovation across the four broadband application areas?” The answer (and the corresponding policy mix) will be different for different member states that are at varying levels of broadband application development.

Our research on the existing ICT policy mix was both top down and bottom up. The top down approach began with the main EU strategies including Lisbon, eEurope and i2010. The bottom up approach reviewed a very wide range of European policy instruments including financial instruments (tax incentives, subsidies), regulation both strong and light (general laws, decisions, agenda and priority setting, action plans) and government provision.

We have developed a set of recommendations for each of the four broadband application areas, as well as policies that cut across all the scenarios.

When setting the policy agenda and when changing the policy mix, integrated monitoring, forecasting and foresight are prerequisites. Integrated monitoring refers to the dynamics within the broadband domains and interaction with sectoral developments, economic trends etc. As an example, progress in promoting eWork may be slow for many reasons, some of which have little or nothing to do with broadband policy.

There are three public deliverables for this study. They can be found at www.ovum.com/BEACON.