Week 3 Commentary
Communication Infrastructures
The internet connectivity and other Information and Communications Applications have played a crucial role in our daily activities. According to Jyoti Choudrie and Catherine Middleton, these innovations are transforming and reshaping the way “we shop, conduct financial transactions, interact and communicate with one another and the state” (Choudrie & Middleton 2013). Thus, communication infrastructures such as broadband are considered as an important issue for economic development by many governments around the world.
Let’s look at Australia as an example, the Government decided to build a National Broadband Network to provide high-speed broadband to all homes and business in the country. This plan was the largest infrastructure project in Australia with the promise to “provide a common platform of universal and ubiquitous broadband across the whole of the Australian media environment, with significant implications for the media ecologies of households, schools, medical practices, government agencies, industries, and all other denizens of the digital environment” (Wilken et al, 2013). However, there are some problems occur during the usage of NBN, people from various areas receive different services. In rural areas, people who connect to high-speed broadband through satellites must shift their online activities routine to the time when there is less demand on satellite services. According to Wilken et al, high-speed broadband does not have the positive impact to residents in the rural area of Australia, they “struggle to overcome a number of technical, environmental and other obstacles to access NBN Co provided services” (Wilken et al, 2014). Nardi and O’Day state that “an information ecology is marked by strong interrelationships and dependencies among it different parts […] When one element is changed, effects can be felt throughout the whole system” (Nardi & O’Day 1999). Although there are many regional residents who have greatest opportunity to connect to high-speed broadband, were benefited by NBN in their daily working and living activities; Government and NBN Co. should invest more on remote areas to narrow down the digital divide and create a “healthy media ecology” in Australia.
References:
Choudrie, J & Middleton, C 2013, Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation: Policy, De Taylor and Francis, Hoboken.
Nardi, B & O’Day, V 1999, Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Wilken, R, Nansen, B, Kennedy, J, Gibbs, M, Arnold, M 2014, ‘NBN benefits regional centres, but rural Australia is still left wanting’, The Conversation, viewed 15 August 2018
https://theconversation.com/nbn-benefits-regional-centres-but-rural-australia-is-still-left-wanting-34532
Wilken, R., Nansen, B., Arnold, M., Kennedy, J. & Gibbs, M. (2013), ‘National, Local and Household Media Ecologies: The Case of Australia’s National Broadband Network’, Communication, Politics & Culture, vol. 46, pp. 136–154.