Free Marketing Dissertations - 1. Identify The Different Levels Of Access To The World Wide Web In Each Of
1. Identify the different levels of access to the World Wide Web in each of the following continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, America (North and South) and Australia. Explore the reasons for this variation.
Asia has a wide range of levels of access to the Internet, ranging from the high technology centres, such as Japan, which is heavily promoting the ‘Asia Broadband Program’, a project aimed at providing people in Asia access to broadband Internet service by 2010, (Ichiro, 2005) Malaysia and Singapore, down to poorer countries, such as Afghanistan, the former Soviet republics, and large areas of rural China, where Internet access is difficult and inconsistent, partly due to lack of demand, partly due to logistical difficulties, and partly due to limited government spending. Indeed, even in some of the most developed areas such as Hong Kong, Internet access has encountered difficulties, with many people concerned that existing services are too slow, despite the fact that a 2002 survey by Lucent Technologies found that ninety nine per cent of workers interviewed in Hong Kong required email access to do their jobs. (Luk, 2002)
Africa is undoubtedly the least connected continent when it comes to Internet access, with Parkes’ (2004) article reporting that a combination of poor infrastructure, high access costs and lack of incentives for foreign investment has been holding back Internet growth, along with most forms of economic development, in Africa for many years now. High access costs, chronic lack of infrastructure, poorly coordinated ICT policies and obstructive regulation are conspiring to keep the Internet out of reach of 99 per cent of the continent's population. Sadly, behind the hope and hype that have characterized African ICT development conferences from Dakar to Dar es Salaam, nowhere near enough is being done at a political level to create the conditions needed to foster external investment and local entrepreneurship. (Parkes, 2004) These political and logistical problems are going to have to be addressed if the continent is ever going to emerge from its Internet ‘blackout’, and develop at a similar rate to the rest of the world.
Europe, in contrast, is now rapidly becoming the dominant continent in terms of Internet access, with a MarketWatch (2005) article presenting a very favourable report on Internet accessibility in Europe, with the integration of the EU fueling technological growth in Western Europe. The report claimed that the number of households in Europe with broadband is expected to grow from 41 million in 2004 to 100.5 million by 2009, representing a compound annual growth rate of 19.6%, a significantly greater rate of growth than that predicted for the US market.
Dissertations - Free Marketing Dissertations
