National broadband plan

Broadband is a term normally considered to be synonymous with a high-speed connection to the internet. Suitability for certain applications, or technically a certain quality of service, is often assumed. For instance, low round trip delay (or "latency" in milliseconds) would normally be assumed to be well under 150ms and suitable for Voice over IP, online gaming, financial trading especially arbitrage, virtual private networks and other latency-sensitive applications. This would rule out satellite Internet as inherently high-latency. In some applications, utility-grade reliability (measured for example in seconds per 30 years outage time as in the PSTN network) or security (say AES-128 as required for smart grid applications in the US) are often also assumed or defined as requirements. There is no single definition of broadband and official plans may refer to any or none of these criteria. Beyond broad latency and reliability expectations, the term itself is technology neutral; broadband can be delivered by a range of technologies including DSL, fiber optic cable, powerline networking, LTE, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or next generation access. Several operators have started to combine two of these technologies to create Hybrid Access Networks. This article presents an overview of official government plans to promote broadband – based on official sources that may be biased due to their promotion of the government plan as effective and positive. Such plans are recommended by OECD and other development agencies. All G7 countries except Canada have such a national broadband plan in place now. Most countries considering such plans conduct their own comparative evaluations of existing national plans. The US, for instance, in September 2010 published a comparison of seven other countries' plans. The OECD tracks closely policy in this area and publishes links to relevant policy documents from its member (developed) countries. Developing countries' plans are studied most closely by the World Bank as part of its e-Development program.