Harvard Law School Book Series presentation. 7:00 to 24:25 "meat and potatoes" portion of presentation, remainder is Q&A.
Key takeaways:
- The problem is that policymakers in the US see high-capacity communications as luxury goods, to be provided only where there is both demand and a high-margin business case.
- Asians pay about $25 - $40 a month, 100% fiber penetration in nations like Korea, Signapore, Japan. Similar to Nordic nations.
- China has a national strategy. Their "Digital Silk Road", as part of the "Belt and Road Initiative" will connect 65% of the global population, representing 40% of the global GDP, providing a fiber backhaul for 5G (using Huawei products). This should be America's Sputnik moment.
- Every day, China moves closer to its goal of having 200 million new fiber optic connections to homes and businesses — at a time when the US has somewhere between 11 and 14 million such connections.
- What all this means is that China, and not the US, will be the sandbox for new applications that require very-high-capacity network connections.