Digital Divide Institute

Quotes

These quotes convey the Meaningful Broadband Model, authored by DDI founder Craig Warren Smith.

Quote 1:
“Closing the Digital Divide is not just about giving to the poor the benefits of the rich. It is about creating a more equitable and balanced world economy.”

Quote 2:
“Mobile data services could do what public schools failed to do: transmit interactive learning and essential skills to low-income citizens.”

Quote 3:
“Broadband is the game-changer of the 21st century. It is the only new tool capable of rescuing human civilization from disaster.”

Quote 4:
“Meaningful Broadband can bring equity and fairness to nations where gaps between rich and poor are rapidly growing.”

Quote 5:
“Broadband is not important because it makes the internet move faster. It is important because it causes separate media to converge, thus increasing their overall impact on human behavior.”

Quote 6:
“In the last decade, the world leapfrogged from fixed line into mobile telephony. Now, in a ‘second leapfrogging’, basic cell phones users must leapfrog to broadband. To do so, a new telecommunications formula is needed.”

Quote 7:
“Broadband is not a ‘public good.’ It can create as much harm as benefit. Meaningful Broadband assures that broadband is beneficial to each nation.”

Quote 8:
“Broadband will determine which nations and which companies are winners and losers in the new global economy.”

Quote 9:
“The Top of the Pyramid (T0P) is saturated. The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) is trapped in poverty. Human civilization’s hope lies in unlocking human potential in the Middle of the Pyramid (MOP). Thailand and Indonesia are ideal MOP testing grounds.”

Quote 10:
“The rise of the new Asian middle class is being shaped by broadband. If broadband turns them into frivolous consumers who imitate Western lifestyles, the global warming tipping point will soon be reached and human civilization will fail.”

Quote 11:
“As on open society surrounded by authoritarian nations, Thailand holds promise for showing how open source could flourish in Asia.”

Quote 12:
“A vibrant Islamic Democracy, Indonesia can use Meaningful Broadband to drive a non-authoritarian approach to economic and spiritual development in the Muslim world.”

Quote 13:
“Broadband’s capacity doubles every year. Increasingly, it will shape children’s values, competing with the influence of parents, communities and schools.”

Quote 14:
“Broadband is the ultimate game-changer. Till now, the primary telecom service was voice, the minute was the best metric for billing, the location of the user was important, pricing was tied to the duration of the call…None of these conditions apply to broadband.”

Quote 15:
“After WWII, rich nations agreed to aid to poor nations not served by markets. But, 50 years later, markets flattened in rich countries and boomed in poor ones. Now poor nations have leverage to move broadband investments into areas of greatest need. By combining ‘carrots’ (public-private partnerships and tax breaks) with ‘sticks’ (regulations) poor governments can induce broadband-enabled markets to serve the poor.”

Quote 16:
“We are becoming a broadband-enabled species. That is not necessarily a good thing.”

Quote 17:
“Why haven’t low-income countries transformed their economies through broadband?
The problem is not lack of investment. It is lack of political will.”

Quote 18:
“Why haven’t low-income countries transformed their economies through broadband? The problem is not lack of investment. It is lack of political will.”

Quote 19:
“In the Meaningful Broadband framework, politicians must turn to the private sector to deliver benefits to their nations that are faster, better and cheaper than efforts to achieve the same benefits via sluggish, corrupt and out-of-date government bureaucracies.”

Quote 20:
“More than any other industry, telecommunications is a “compact” between public and private sectors. This compact must be re-drawn in the broadband era.”

Quote 21:
“One way governments shape the deployment of technologies is through tax policies. Companies that introduce meaningful technologies to low-income consumers should get a tax break. Companies that do not, should be forced to a higher level of taxation.”

Quote 22:
“Pay or play” is a good regulatory formula. Telecom companies that “play” (e.g. introduce meaningful services for low-income users) should be preferred by regulators. If they don’t, they should be made to “pay,” in the form of higher taxes and other penalties.

Quote 23:
“The Meaningful Broadband Model disrupts entrenched interests in government and business that currently prevent the masses from benefiting from the Internet.”

Quote 24:
“Within the space of a single generation, broadband (deployed un-meaningfully) could erase the wisdom cultivated for thousands of years in Asia’s great civilizations.”

Quote 25:
“The role of digital technology is not “to connect people,” as marketers claim. Humans are already connected. They always have been connected. The role of meaningful technology is to help them realize this fact.”

Quote 26:
“In Meaningful Broadband, demand drives supply, not the other way around.”

Quote 27:
“Broadband’s significance is defined by its future. Its “price/performance” ratio doubles every 12-15 months. Thus, the capacity of broadband will keep doubling and doubling again for nations that already have it. Nations that never reach a critical mass of broadband will be left in the dust.”

Quote 28:
“Broadband policy is like an iceberg. 95% is hidden beneath the surface. To alter broadband’s course, we must go deep.”

Quote 29:
“Telecom regulators try to be “platform neutral” – politically correct hogwash. They  shouldn’t be neutral. They should be biased in favor of technology platforms that most empower their citizens.”