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NewsGlobe: Commentary
Commentary
Broadband empowers the telecommuter
Potential is great, but hurdles remain
by Sean Buckley
Although it’s far from the ultimate fiber to the home (FTTH) dream,
Verizon Communications is making good on its promise to extend DSL to
various rural towns in Western, Massachusetts.
Most of the towns located in this area of Massachusetts have had little
in the way of Internet access besides dial up or satellite service.
As I opined in a recent column about having a national broadband policy,
bringing broadband to more remote areas can make these communities
attractive to newcomers who want rural town amenities, including the
possibility of working remotely.
(see: http://www.telecommagazine.com/search/article.asp?
HH_ID=AR_4349&SearchWord=)
In an interview with Western Massachusetts-based newspaper The
Republican, Michael Falk, a member of the town of Becket’s Broadband
Committee--who currently uses satellite Internet service--said
that ‘having more broadband would make it easier for professionals to
live in rural towns and telecommute.’
Telecommuting has a number of well documented benefits: increased
productivity, continuity of operations for government and private
companies, and benefits for the environment as it takes more cars off
the road.
Even though I am seeing a slight dip in gas prices—it’s currently about
US $3.85 for mid-grade gas at one of the local stations where I live in
Dracut, Mass—gasoline is still pretty expensive.
And with Dracut being at least 20 minutes from the nearest highway and
an over one hour commute to the office here in Norwood, MA, being able
to get started a bit earlier at my house some days saves time and
enables me to get a jump on the day that I can’t get in my car.
Alright, maybe I should not complain about the price of gas since others
have it much worse than me.
For one, our managing director Keith Kreisher actually lives even further
North up in Portland, ME and spends part of his week here in nearby
Milton, MA. To offset my personal economic woes, I currently telecommute twice a
week. Apart from the fact that the conference bridge does not like VoIP and
that there’s an imminent power outage threat where I live,
telecommuting has let me fill up the tank only once a week versus
twice.
Government takes action
Having spent a year covering the government IT space as an analyst at
Current Analysis, I saw first hand how the U.S. government is leading
the charge for telecommuting.
The government’s telecommuting drive, an initiative that got started in
2000 to alleviate traffic congestion in the Washington, DC metro area,
has seen its share of setbacks and triumphs.
With a mandate to make 100 percent of the federal workforce eligible to
telecommute by 2005, the initial telecommuting mandate was pretty
ambitious.
Not surprisingly, by 2004 the response by various government agencies
was relatively minimal. This prompted the Office of Management and
Budget to withhold funding from various federal agencies until they
complied.
Despite its initial setbacks, government agencies and even private
companies are making progress.
Since 2004, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has
developed a program that allows workers to telecommute twice a week.
And, according to CDW’s (a US-based IT solutions provider) fourth
Telework Report, about 17 percent of federal government employees
currently can telecommute, while 14 percent of private companies are
telecommute-ready.
Going green
Seems like you can’t go anywhere without hearing the idea of going
Green and being more environmentally conscious.
Some telecom industry pundits such as the European Fiber to the Home
Council are even going so far as to say that the ongoing rollout of FTTH
with its ability to provide high bandwidth capabilities could enable
computer programmers, designers and even the journalist to get a more
responsive network experience.
In conjunction with Price Waters House Coopers, the council’s SUDEFIB
(Sustainable Development Fiber) committee did a study around the time
of the FTTH Council Europe conference measuring the environmental
impact of fiber networks.
Based on market projections set by INDATE that there will be 20 FTTH
million users by 2015, the researchers postulated that for the first 15
years of implementation, greenhouse gas emissions per user were 330
kg. (See: http://www.telecommagazine.com/Magazine/article.asp?
HH_ID=AR_4023)
But let’s be realistic here.
While Asia continues to lead the FTTH charge with 27 million FTTH
connections, most countries, including Europe, pale in comparison.
IDATE calculates there were just over 1 million FTTH/B subscribers in the
European Union 31 (EU27 plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and
Andorra), which represents 23 percent growth compared with the 12
months previous.
Meanwhile, US carriers such as Verizon with FiOS and other smaller
independent ILECs and municipalities have extended fiber to 2.9 million
homes. Verizon currently serves 1.8 million of the 2.9 million U.S. homes
that are connected to fiber according to research and consulting firm
RVA LLC.
Outside of totally new Greenfield builds, the road to FTTH for most
service providers with existing copper network assets will be a long one
for sure, but fiber’s potential is one that should not be overlooked either.
Safe and secure
Besides the obvious cultural shift towards telecommuting programs for
private companies and government, the paramount concern for private
companies and government agencies is security.
At issue is the enterprise’s ability to not only keep track of company-
owned endpoints (e.g., laptops and mobile devices like the Blackberry)
but ensure that the IT department can track any malicious traffic that
might come back into their main network from a remote location.
Also, what will happen when these devices are lost or are stolen? There
have been countless stories where laptops with sensitive government
and customer and employee information such as addresses and social
security numbers have gone missing.
In March, a report emerged that a government laptop computer that had
unecrypted medical records of 2,500 participants in a government issued
study was stolen from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
This is not the first time such a breach happened with a remote
endpoint. Earlier, in May 2006, the Veterans Affairs reported a laptop
computer containing personal data on 26.5 million veterans and military
personnel was stolen from a military employee.
What has contributed to these security breaches--something that’s
been on the rise in government--is the ongoing emergence of mobile and
remote workers.
To help counteract these security issues, service providers are stepping
up with new solutions to manage endpoint security.
Qwest, for instance, recently launched a two-pronged telecommuting
product for its mobility suite of services—Qwest Comply and Qwest
Teleworker. (see: http://www.telecommagazine.com/search/article.asp?
HH_ID=AR_4365&SearchWord=)
In the event a laptop is stolen, Qwest Mobility can encrypt hard drive
data rendering it unusable by thieves.
And while cyber security threats that come from sources outside their
defense perimeter will continue to keep IT department heads up at night,
more broadband and even wireless data technologies mean that there
will be more telecommuting.
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