Canada #4 in telecommunications use to boost prosperity
July 10, 2008
By Peter Wolchak
A recent ranking of countries on their use of telecommunications to boost social and economic prosperity places Canada at a solid four.
The Connectivity Scorecard was created by Professor Leonard Waverman of the London Business School. The study, conducted by economic consulting firm LECG and commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks, concludes businesses and governments must make better use of communications and computing infrastructure in order to reap the full economic and social benefits of ICT.
Waverman said even the world’s best-connected countries are not exploiting communications technologies to their fullest potential. The Scorecard measures the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers enhance social and economic prosperity through the use of connectivity technologies: copper wires, fiber-optic lines, mobile phones, PCs, etc. Countries typically considered to be well connected achieved only modest scores: the average for a group of 16 countries that included the U.S., Sweden and Korea was 5.05 out of 10.
“What this study demonstrates is that not even the world’s richest countries can afford to become complacent about their current telecom and computing profile. Every nation has substantial work to do before achieving an ideal score in connectivity,” Waverman said. “To increase the societal and economic benefits made possible by connectivity, countries need to consider infrastructure and usage as a combined yardstick.” More information is available at www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/connectivityscorecard.
Bluetooth headsets are very useful - until you misplace them. When you lose the attractive little S-800, you use your phone to signal the headset to start buzzing.
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