The United States Federal Government has announced spending of $7 Billion on High-speed broadband networks as part of a $787 billion economic stimulus package. While the investment is mainly to create jobs (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson says the spending will "ensure 2 million American Jobs"), it also seems to be part of a larger world-wide trend to get as many people hooked up to high-speed as possible. Many compare it to highways and telephone lines of years past and it's quickly becoming a staple, not a luxury.

This is great news for online retailers as broadband usage is shown to be closely tied to e-commerce activity. It seems straight forward enough; the faster the internet the more people can do in the same amount of time on their computer and that often includes making purchases. More people shopping online coupled with more stores focusing on online retail (given the ______ (insert expletive here) economy and the low cost of running an online store vs. a brick and mortar store) means there could be a major shift to much more online shopping. Research firms have been predicting it for years, but with the added urgency to make broadband more available (the $7bn must be spent by the end 2010) the maturation of the online retail channel could happen sooner rather than later.

The US isn't the only country investing in broadband; eMarketer predicts Argentina's broadband usage is set to double in the next five years and much of Europe and Asia have heavy, growing broadband usage. Canada is also investing in high-speed. Saskatchewan premiere Brad Wall set forth a three-year plan to give his province 100% broadband access. "It will arguably be the best network in the world," SaskTel president Robert Watson said back in November of 2008. Broadband becoming widely accepted will have an impact on the world at large, but the most direct and obvious result will be the continuing growth of online ecommerce (even even with a grim economy). Long story short: get used to shopping online; more and more stores may ONLY have an online presence.

Sources:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stimulus_senate_vote http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/04/saskatchewan.economy/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7933895.stm http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/11/26/internet-access.html http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006954