Trends in Connectivity Technologies and Their Socioeconomic Impacts. Final Report of the Study: Policy Options for the Ubiquitous Internet Society. Technical Report

This report is intended to inform the European Commission's DG Information Society and Media in developing its policies for the period 2010-2020. It is targeted to policymakers with expert knowledge of the field. The report summarises the work conducted in the study: "Policy Options for the Ubiquitous Internet Society". It builds on three prior documents: (1) a briefing paper on Connectivity Challenges; (2) The Interim report containing trend analysis, scenario development, modelling of socio-economic impacts and a review of changing business models; and (3) a Workshop Report. In addition, an analysis was made of policies in the US, Japan and South Korea to provide a reference for the EU's own policy in the field of ICTs (information and communication technologies) and especially the future of the Internet (its architecture and socio-economic fall out). This report contains a review of technology trends underlying the future Internet Society. It assesses the possible future socio-economic impacts; as well as the changing business models that are likely to emerge in the next 5 to 10 years. The ultimate objective of the study is to make future policy recommendations for the successor programme to the current EU's ICT strategy: the i2010 programme. The project involved trend analysis, econometric modelling, desk research, interviews, a survey, scenario development and gaming. Five appendices are included: (1) Tech Trend Summary Tables; (2) Identifying and Mapping the Scenario Dimensions; (3) Framework for Analysis of Economic Impacts; (4) Cases Studies of Policy Frameworks in Japan, US, South Korea and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and (5) Cross Cutting Relevance of Connectivity Challenges. (Contains 28 figures, 29 tables, and 199 footnotes.) [This report was prepared for the DG Information Society and Media.]