Broadband is like a river (but not the way you think)

[Commentary] In his 2014 book, "The Accidental Superpower", Peter Zeihan traces the origins of America’s economic prosperity to its abundance of rivers. The US has more miles of navigable waterways, which provide a uniquely efficient and inexpensive means for transporting goods across a continent, than the rest of the world put together. According to Zeihan, this difference was a critical factor in the country’s emergence as the world’s leading superpower. And because rivers do not require large-scale efforts to build and operate, they favor decentralized development, which has encouraged local entrepreneurs, who represent a distinctive aspect of the US economy. The US is also blessed with many natural harbors that are another major contributor to a country’s economic success.

In recent years, it has been technology -- and especially information and communications technology (ICT) -- that has provided the critical infrastructure that has promoted economic growth in the US and globally. It turns out that the economic impact of ICT has been based not only on its technical characteristics, but also on the way that it has been developed and deployed. Although we remain the pre-eminent source of tech innovation, new technologies get diffused around the world almost overnight. If we are going to keep our economy strong in a highly competitive world, if we are going to keep the Internet-powered engine of innovation running at full speed, we need policies that will promote permission-less innovation, continued investment in expanding and upgrading our digital infrastructure and policies that encourage companies to use it creatively.

[Richard Adler is a distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto (CA)]