Feature Story

April 22, 2001

By John Earnhardt, News@Cisco

Cisco's message at the Summit of the Americas was clear-countries should be focusing on the rollout of broadband Internet connectivity as a means of increasing productivity and decreasing the digital divides that exist within the hemisphere.

Speaking to senior government officials attending the conference, Daniel Scheinman, Cisco's senior vice president of Corporate Affairs, delivered a connectivity keynote presentation titled, "The Broadband Decade: Connecting the Americas by 2010." The presentation to delegates focused on new opportunities, trends and best practices for the rollout of broadband connectivity, or always-on, high-speed Internet access, and its positive affects on productivity.

"Now is the time for countries to get on board the New Economy by rolling out broadband. We are now in the broadband decade," said Mr. Scheinman.

"The choice is yours," he told the delegates. "You can choose between a productive, broadband-enabled country and one that is not. We're at one of those moments when we're choosing between the next generation of communications technologies. The high-speed Internet offers a way for countries that lag technologically to 'leapfrog' further into the digital age."

Leaders must pave the way

"The leaders are the ones who have to make the decision to promote broadband," said Scheinman. "Leaders have to the pave the way for investment through business incentives and deregulation or through direct government investment in infrastructure. Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Chile are already paving the way for broadband," Scheinman continued.

"Other countries in the Americas need to take the appropriate steps to foster the environment for its build-out." He said that this also includes a strong focus on improving a country's education system.

However, different telecom regulatory structures and market aspects mean there is no "silver bullet" for a country's broadband build-out. Different countries around the world have taken different approaches and have had success.

Increasing Productivity through Broadband Connectivity

Scheinman showed statistics and figures proving that broadband connectivity increases the productivity of workers. Through the implementation of applications run over broadband connections, such as e-learning, e-business, e-government and supply chain management, Scheinman contended that countries could "choose" their own standard of living. Based on a 2.3 per cent productivity growth rate, a country's standard of living would double in 31 years.

"Increased productivity through broadband," Scheinman said, "obviously increases economic growth. The more companies and citizens who are broadband-enabled in a country, the higher the GDP growth and the faster the standard of living improves."

Scheinman oversees Cisco's legal, government affairs and corporate relations teams. He is instrumental in educating government leaders about the Internet Economy and the importance of harnessing the power of the Internet for positive change and improving people's lives. He also works with organizations around the world to help redefine the way the public and private sectors work together.

The Summit of the Americas is a gathering of the democratically elected leaders of 34 nations from North America, Latin America and the Caribbean island states.

The Summits main purpose is to reinvigorate the drive to create a vast trading block from Canada in the north to Chile in the south, encompassing 800 million people and with a combined output of $11 trillion in goods and services.