Cisco Government Affairs E-Update

Volume 1, Issue 41

14 December 2001

Brought to you by Cisco Government Affairs Online: http://www.cisco.com/gov

NETWORK FOR GOOD, an independent, 501(c)(3) organization, was founded by the AOL Time Warner Foundation and AOL, Inc.; the Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc.; and Yahoo! Inc., in partnership with over 20 nonprofit foundations and associations who share the desire to foster the informed use of the Internet for civic participation and philanthropy. The Website aggregates content and resources from these leaders, organizes them and makes them available in one comprehensive, easy-to-use destination, which also helps to expand the reach, effectiveness and pervasiveness of all of Network for Good's nonprofit partners. www.networkforgood.com

This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs

Cisco's E-Update keeps you up to date on the major policy news of the week. Focusing on broadband, education and e-government areas, but covering high-tech and telecom in general, the E-Update is a great source of information for state, federal and international policymakers. To subscribe, send a message with “subscribe” in the subject line to “Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com

10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK – “LET THERE BE THE WEB” - Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the first U.S. Web page, created by Paul Kunz, a physicist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).  Kunz went home and created what was to become the first Web page on a U.S. computer; it gave scientists easy access to SLAC's database of physics papers. World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee demonstrated Kunz's Web page in front of scientists at a conference in France. ''It was a very dramatic moment,'' Kunz says. ''I realized without that last piece in the demo people would have forgotten about the Web before they got home.'' Instead, they went home and told all their colleagues. Then they started creating their own pages, and the rest, as they say, is history. http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011211/3688938s.htm

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201-8104108-0.html

This Week@WASHINGTON, DC

TAUZIN-DINGELL PULLED FOR THE YEAR – Floor consideration of the broadband bill has been postponed until next year.  House leaders decided to delay a vote on a bill that would let phone companies sell high-speed Internet access nationwide without opening their home markets to competition.  The vote is now tentatively scheduled for March 2002.  The measure, sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., would deregulate the local Bell companies in an attempt to level the playing field with cable providers. Tauzin says the bill would encourage the Bells to sell their brand of broadband service in rural areas.  Opponents – which include cable service leader AT&T and computer industry trade groups – warn against allowing the Bells to extend their dominance of the local phone market into other areas. Already several once-vibrant Internet providers have filed for bankruptcy or gone out of business after trying to compete with the Bells. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40158-2001Dec13.html

NYTIMES OP-ED - THE BROADBAND ECONOMY - A resource crucial to the economic recovery of the United States is buried underground. Hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable, which enables the fast, robust communication that was so important to the economic success of the last decade, currently lies unused, the digital equivalent of fallow farmland.  America needs to put this asset to work. Broadband — the generic term for high-speed, high-capacity, always- on data networks — is integral to the improvement of the American economy. To help businesses and consumers gain access to this technology, Congress and the administration must come up with a bold broadband strategy — and avoid the quick-fix solution that would rely on the powerful regional Bell telephone companies….Without broadband, small businesses are unable to boost productivity the way their larger counterparts did in the late 1990's. Nor will Silicon Valley be able to reach a critical mass of customers for its newest applications — from online doctor visits to high- quality video conferencing and interactive television. Without mass access to broadband, businesses of all sizes will not want to invest in a host of productivity-enhancing technologies. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/10/opinion/10KORN.html (Free subscription required)

"REMOVING ROADBLOCKS TO BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT" - Nancy J. Victory, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, U. S. Department of Commerce spoken on "Removing Roadblocks to Broadband Deployment" before the Competition Policy Institute's Conference "Keeping Telecom Competition on Track." http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/2001/cpi_120601.htm

FCC INITIATES PROCEEDING TO EXAMINE REGULATORY TREATMENT OF INCUMBENT CARRIERS’ BROADBAND SERVICES - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiated a review of the current regulatory requirements for incumbent local exchange carriers’ (LECs) broadband telecommunications services. Incumbent LECs are generally treated as dominant carriers; thus they are subject to certain requirements, such as tariff filings and pricing requirements. With today’s action, the Commission seeks to ensure that the proper incentives for broadband growth and investment are in place, and to ensure that the Commission’s rules reflect the current competitive landscape. 

Press Release - http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/2001/nrcc0151.html

Statement By Chairman Powell: http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Powell/Statements/2001/stmkp144.html

Statement By Commissioner Copps: http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Copps/Statements/2001/stmjc131.html

REMARKS OF FCC COMMISSIONER KATHLEEN ABERNATHY Before the Conference on Homeland Defense: Mobile and Wireless Communications - http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Abernathy/2001/spkqa107.html

CONGRESMAN FORECASTS IT SPENDING BOOST - Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said Dec. 11 that he expected the Bush administration's fiscal 2003 budget request for information technology to increase by at least 10 percent.  Citing the events of Sept. 11 and the vulnerabilities uncovered as a result of them, Davis said he expected the White House to seek significant new funding for IT investments to strengthen America's defenses.  http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1210/web-davis-12-12-01.asp

INTERNET FOUNDER WARNS ON SECURITY - One of the Internet's founders said Wednesday there were important weaknesses in the Bush administration's plans to build an ultra-secure government network and to encourage companies to make computers safer for consumers.  Vinton G. Cerf, widely recognized as a ``father of the Internet'' for co-inventing one of its communications technologies, warned against a White House proposal to have software companies automatically repair their products whenever new vulnerabilities were discovered.  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011212/tc/computer_security_2.html

NEW ADVISORS DISCUSS TECH PRIORITIES WITH PRESIDENT BUSH - The leaders of the President Bush's recently formed high-tech advisory council today briefed Bush on their plans for crafting policy recommendations in the areas of high-tech research, counter-terrorism and homeland infrastructure development.  Bush also announced plans to appoint 22 individuals to serve on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Those appointees, along with previously named PCAST co-chairs Floyd Kvamme and John Marburger sat down at the White House to outline their plans. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172923.html

FIRSTGOV.GOV TO GET A FACELIFT - The General Services Administration is planning a major makeover for FirstGov, the government's data-endowed but bureaucratic-bland Web portal.  The new FirstGov will be eye-catching and customer-friendly. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1210/news-first-12-10-01.asp

INFO TECH OUTSOURCING TO DOUBLE IN FIVE YEARS, STUDY SAYS - As the government faces an impending shortfall of skilled technology workers, the federal technology outsourcing market will grow more than twofold over the next five years, according to a report issued Monday by IT analysis and marketing firm INPUT in Chantilly, Va.   By 2006, agencies will spend $13.2 billion on private workers to manage and run many of their technology systems, including telecommunications networks, desktop computers and technology infrastructure, the report said. With this year’s base of $6.3 billion in spending, the forecast represents an annual growth rate of almost 16 percent.  http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1201/121001h1.htm

This Week@INTERNATIONAL

CHINA IN WTO - The People's Republic of China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). December 11, 2001, was 30 days after the PR China notified the WTO that it had completed its domestic ratification of its accession package.  Commerce Secretary Donald Evans released a statement in which he said that its "accession to the WTO will open China's market to American exports of industrial goods, services, and agriculture to an unprecedented degree, and strengthen the world economy. For the first time, American firms have unprecedented freedom to trade in China by buying and selling their own products there."

WTO News Release - http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres01_e/pr252_e.htm

U.S. Commerce Secretary Evan’s Statement: http://osecnt13.osec.doc.gov/public.nsf/docs/Evans-China-WTO

TIME FOR CHANGE IN EU'S BROADBAND STRATEGY? - The European Union needs to rethink its competition policy on communications networks if it wants to spread high-speed Internet use in the 15-nation bloc, analysts said on Monday.   Europe's efforts to increase broadband Internet penetration to bridge an existing gap with the United States have so far focused on liberalizing the last mile of telephone networks. This gives new telecom operators access to the phone network.  But one year after this ``local loop'' has been opened up, broadband penetration is not picking up as expected, according to market data. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011210/tc/tech_eu_broadband_dc_2.html

BREAKTHROUGH ON REFORM OF EU TELECOM LAWS - The European Union this week managed to deliver a large part of its economic reform programme when the European parliament agreed to compromise on a ground-breaking legislative package that sets out common rules for Europe's telecommunications and media sector.  The measures, which includes four directives that will now become EU law, together form one of the biggest legislative packages pushed through by the current European Commission and represent perhaps the biggest success so far of Belgium's presidency of the EU.  http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3HRK8J5VC&live=true&tagid=ZZZPCGI2B0C

BT TESTS BROADBAND IN REMOTE PARTS OF CORNWALL - British Telecommunications will announce a pilot project to offer broadband internet access in the most remote parts of Cornwall. The £12.5m ($17.9m) scheme gained approval after months of haggling by European officials concerned about state aid implications.  http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=166389374&i=432643&d=2119204

FACING DISCONNECTION: HARD CHOICES FOR EUROPE'S TELCOS - Facing massive debt and skeptical shareholders, Europe's telecommunications operators are entering a period of painful change. As the industry restructures, only a few large integrated players will remain; others will have to reduce their emphasis on either wireless or data services—areas they once considered vital. But without taking the painful steps of shedding assets and refocusing, most European telecom companies will find their growth options blocked. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ab_g.asp?ar=1147  (Free Subscription Required)

SPEECH: EU TELCOMS PACKAGE - Mr Erkki Liikanen Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society Remarks in the European Parliament on the Telecom Package Remarks in the European Parliament on the Telecom Package Strasbourg, 10 December 2001

http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/01/622|0|RAPID&lg=EN;

ITALY: OPENED THE LAST MILE - Easier the high speed access to the Internet with new telephone operators after the permission of the Authority on the shared lines. Telecom Italia asks for reciprocity with the competitors' network.  In Italian: http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art.jhtml?artid=78823&dnr=true

 

HOW WIRED ARE ITALIAN SCHOOLS? - Italy is not far behind the rest of Europe in the use of internet in schools as 89 per cent of institutions do work online, according to a recent survey by Censis, the Italian Centre for Social Studies and Policies.  http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7202

ONLINE BANKING HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REACH 110 MILLION EUROPEANS BY 2005 - Today, over a third of Europe’s internet users, which amount to 42 million people, or 14 per cent of all European adults bank online, and online banking in Europe continues to attract more than 1 million new consumers a month, according to Forrester Research.  http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7269

NEW BRITISH PAYPHONES TO OFFER INTERNET ACCESS - British telecom equipment maker Marconi Plc and telecom giant unveiled today plans to install a network of 28,000 Internet-ready payphones across Britain. The companies said they were to introduce the new phones, which would offer full online access and traditional voice services, from next April and roll them out over five years. Wednesday's news came exactly 100 years to the day after Guglielmo Marconi, founder of Marconi's predecessor company, invented radio with three faint clicks heard across the Atlantic. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1702303l.htm

 

UK GOVERNMENT APPOINTS EXTERNAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT EXPERTS - The UK Office of the e-Envoy (oeE) has announced the creation of LERN (Levering External Advice and Relations Network), a network of leading knowledge management (KM) practitioners. http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7276

UK GOVERNMENT INVESTS E80.45M INTO CURRICULUM ONLINE - In an attempt to provide more media-rich educational material to teachers and students, the UK government has invested GBP£50m (E80.45m) into its ‘Curriculum Online’ initiative, which it hopes will help raise standards.

http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7233  

FRANCE FOUND GUILTY OF VIOLATING THE EU’S OPEN NETWORK PROVISION RULES - France has failed to provide universal fixed telephone services that are affordable and therefore has not complied with the European Union’s Open Network Provision rules, which are meant to deregulate the market, according to the European Court of Justice.  http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7219

TIGHT BANDWIDTH SNARLS WEB TRAFFIC IN MIDDLE EAST - In addition government censorship, access to electronic information in the Arab Middle East is also restricted by severe network bottlenecks. The Middle East, in fact, may be the only region in the world with a bandwidth shortage. The rapid expansion of fiber optic systems in the late 1990's resulted in a bandwidth glut in the United States and Europe, forcing some carriers into bankruptcy. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/10/technology/10GLUT.html (free subscription required)

MOROCCO MAY CHANGE ITS TELECOMS RULES - Planned legal changes to Morocco's telecommunications administration threaten to end the independence of the telecoms regulator and may hamper future investment in the sector, said senior Moroccan political officials. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=166389374&i=432645&d=2119278

 

CHILE, THE HIGH-TECH WONDER - As Chile and the United States near completion of a bilateral free-trade agreement, Chile is working to keep its technology sector out front in Latin America. Chile is developing tech-friendly legislation and various tech initiatives, despite suffering an economic slowdown, according to Economy Minister Alvaro Diaz. In an interview after the Business Software Alliance's Global Tech Summit in Washington last week, Diaz outlined several initiatives.  For instance, Chile expects to pass legislation in 2002 to upgrade its patent and trademark law to the standard of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), he said. The country also is developing its legal framework for e-commerce. (National Journal’s Tech Daily – www.nationaljournal.com)

BRAZIL'S DULCET TONES OF TECH - In a poor neighborhood in the city of Olinda, Brazil artists, dancers and musicians are embracing technology as a way to help youth imagine a way out of poverty. A group called Leão Coroado, which has sung and danced "maracatu" since 1863, is trying to fight poverty and violence by using its music, and now technology, to educate the community. Leão Coroado is implementing a technology infrastructure in which volunteers teach local residents the basics of how to work with computers and the Internet. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48362,00.html

REFLECTIONS OF A PERU WEB PIONEER - José Soriano thinks anyone should be able to access the Internet, not only those who can afford a computer. That is why he created the Peruvian Scientific Net (RCP) in December 1991, just after the creation of the World Wide Web, and gave Web access to half a million Peruvians. Soriano's idea was to build public Internet booths (much like cybercafes), making Net access cheap. Thousand of these booths, called cabinas públicas, were built all over Perú. "We want to give people tools and knowledge about how to use them, in a way it makes sense to them. That is the only way people will get near technology, use it for their own good and be self-relying," said José Soriano recently in Buenos Aires, where he arrived for the opening of a community center much like the ones he helped build. The model is also being applied in El Salvador.  http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48634,00.html

This Week@US STATES

COLORADO TO CALIFORNIA - Governor Bill Owens (R-CO) visited Silicon Valley this week to meet with high tech executives in Silicon Valley. Owens is a strong supporter of Silicon Valley and the technology community and is candid about is interest in shaping Colorado in the image of the Valley in order to draw more technology companies t the state.  He also emphasized the importance of having high-speed broadband connectivity in Colorado as a critical economic development tool to attract those high tech businesses to less-metropolitan areas in his state.

THE STATES AS TECH INNOVATORS - State policymakers are realizing the importance of science and technology, two tech policymakers said at a recent State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) conference in Pittsburgh.   "If innovation and new technologies profoundly shaped the 20th century, they will define the 21st," said Bruce Mehlman, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for technology policy. "And if America hopes to continue as the world's foremost technology champion, we will need to redouble our efforts to support and extend our technological excellence."  Mehlman said industry leaders are setting examples, particularly in their post-Sept. 11 efforts to recover and rebuild what was lost in the terrorists' destruction. He added that technology growth is key to state and local prosperity and has the ability to improve quality.  Mehlman said that among the Bush administration's top priorities -- terrorism, the economy, trade and education -- the common theme is using technology to improve the world. "But regional economies are the building block of U.S. competitiveness. ... Decisions made at the local level play a critical role in establishing the environment."  (National Journal’s Tech Daily – www.nationaljournal.com)

BLUEPRINT SHOWS WAY TO 'E2GOV' - With government as we know it being transformed into e-government, the next stage may already be upon us — "e2government."  The National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council, a consortium of national associations encouraging electronic government, unveiled a blueprint to promote enterprise electronic government, or e2government, at the council's annual conference in Las Vegas this week.  Jerry Mechling, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said governments are using technology to offer online applications, but agencies generally maintain separate information databases and duplicate efforts. "We have not, by and large, gotten into the integration across boundaries," he said. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2001/1210/web-egov-12-13-01.asp
Website: http://ec3.org/

ASIAN-AMERICANS AMONG TOP NET USERS - Asian-Americans who speak English are among the heaviest users of the Internet, having integrated it into their daily lives more than any other ethnic or racial group, a survey released this week finds.  The telephone survey of English-speaking American adults, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, found that 75 percent of English-speaking Asian-American adults have used the Internet.  Seventy percent go online on a typical day, compared with 58 percent for whites, 48 percent for English-speaking Hispanics and 39 percent of blacks.  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011212/tc/internet_asian_americans_1.html

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011213/3696771s.htm 

The Report: http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=52

TELECOMMUTERS MUST PAY EXTRA FOR CABLE VPNS - Planning on supporting full-time teleworkers or casual telecommuters with a secure virtual private network (VPN) over cable broadband service? Think again. Two of the major cable companies, Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc., have boilerplate language buried in their residential service agreements that expressly forbids the use of a VPN over a residential broadband cable hookup. Two other major cable companies, AT&T Broadband and AOL Time Warner Inc., as well as Cablevision Systems Corp., which serves 3 million subscribers in suburban New York, all say they allow the use of VPNs by residential subscribers but they won't provide user support. http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO66589,00.html

BUILDING AN ELECTRONIC NETWORK OF CARE - An initiative announced yesterday may soon give patients the option of making key information from their medical records available electronically to all of the doctors, hospitals and pharmacies involved in their care. Fragmentation and lack of communication among caregivers are widely cited by critics of the U.S. health care system as a major source of medical errors, unnecessary spending and inadequate care.  The project by the Patient Safety Institute (PSI), a new nonprofit organization, will seek to address those problems by creating an electronic network that would allow participating doctors and health care institutions to share information that is often needed to make medical decisions -- such as the list of a patient's current medicines, recent laboratory tests, allergies and immunization record. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28495-2001Dec11.html

OTHER TECH STORIES OF THE WEEK

INTERNET WILL BOOST PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: ECONOMISTS - Splashy Web sites like www.pets.com may have gone the way of the eight-track tape, but the Internet will continue to improve the daily lives of Americans over the next five years, say two prominent economists.   Broad sectors of the U.S. economy will continue to migrate routine functions like billing and inventory management to the Internet, boosting productivity gains by one-quarter to one-half of 1 percent per year, say Brookings Institution economists Robert E. Litan and Alice M. Rivlin in a new book.   At that rate, a worker earning the U.S. average of $36,000 per year would see his real income grow by $2,500 per year, Litan said.  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011213/wr/tech_internet_economy_dc_1.html

HOME BROADBAND USE JUMPS - The number of people using high-speed Internet connections to surf the Web from their homes has surged this year, according to data from Nielsen/NetRatings.  More than 21 million people used broadband Internet services, such as cable modem and DSL (digital subscriber line), from home in November, according to the report. That means one in five people online at home have a broadband connection, a 90 percent jump from November 2000.  This "explosive" growth is largely the result of savvy packaging from DSL and cable-modem providers that bundle cable and long-distance with broadband services, said T.S. Kelly, director and principal analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings. Kelly also cited a general increase in Internet use since the Sept. 11 attacks as people cut back on travel and entertainment outside the home.  http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-8146643.html

The Study: http://www.nielsennetratings.com/pr/pr_011211.pdf (Adobe File)

BROADBAND'S SLOW START HIDES ITS POTENTIAL - About 10m American homes and small businesses will have high-speed internet access by the end of this year, below most forecasts made at the start of 2001, according to the latest estimates on Wall Street and in the communications industry.  While roughly double the 5.2m users of a year before, the figures highlight the global teething troubles of a communications technology that many industry executives believe will stimulate a big wave of spending on technology, as well as entertainment and communications.  However, the early, patchy experience of the young broadband industry is not likely to change its potential to become a significant communications medium in the developed world by the middle of this decade, according to most observers. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3CLI3K5VC&live=true

CHARTING THE WEB'S NEXT TRANSFORMATION - While a student at Oxford University in the mid-1970s, Tim Berners-Lee cobbled together a computer using a soldering iron with TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television. Fifteen years later, demonstrating the same knack for invention, the software engineer radically changed the history of computing when he wrote the protocols that define the World Wide Web.  Since that momentous invention, Berners-Lee has led the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web's central standards body. As the consortium's director, Berners-Lee has guided the Web's underlying protocols as the Web has experienced its explosive, unanticipated growth. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201-8155733-0.html

TOYOTA TO SELL NEW VEHICLE BRAND OVER INTERNET - Toyota Motor Corp. will tap the Internet to take orders for a new lineup of youth-oriented vehicles to be sold under a new third brand in the United States, a top U.S. executive said.  The Japanese automaker, in the final stages of picking a name for the third brand, will adopt an Internet sales plan similar to the one used for the Prius hybrid, which can only be ordered over the Internet, said Jim Press, chief operating officer of Toyota's U.S. sales unit.  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011211/wr/autos_toyota_dc_1.html

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER - Internet An 'Equalizer' For Minority Car Buyers - Women and minorities looking to buy a new car might be better off if they did their shopping online, according to research by the Yale School of Management and the University of California's Haas School of Business.  The study, called "Consumer Information and Price Discrimination," found that minorities pay an average of 2 percent more than whites when buying a vehicle, a figure that works ot to about $500 per sale and includes differences in the purchase prices as well as the costs of the new-car hunt.  The researchers, in their report released Tuesday, said that difference virtually disappeared in data from online car purchases. However, they concluded that disparity was not the result of racial discrimination by traditional car dealers, but of socio-economic barriers that make it more difficult for minorities to research and negotiate the best deals.  http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172898.html

FACTS AND STATS:

GOOD DEAL FOR DSL IN SWEDEN - Oftel reports that as of 2001, Sweden has the cheapest broadband rates in Europe. The British telecom regulator found that internet users in Sweden are paying £23 ($43.50), on average, per month for digital subscriber line (DSL) access and UK users are paying the most with fees of £49 ($71) a month. Cable modem connections in Sweden are also the cheapest at £19 ($27.50) a month, followed by the UK at £26 ($37.50).

Q4 2001 E-SHOPPING IN THE U.S. - IDC estimates that US consumers will spend $17.5 billion online in Q4 2001 -- up 46% from Q4 2000. IDC predicts that online holiday spending will rise 49% between Q4 2001 and Q4 2002 to $26 billion. IDC reports that spending per buyer will rise from $297 in Q4 2001 to $347 in Q4 2002, representing a 17% rise. Additionally, the company reports that 59 million people will buy online in 2001 and 75 million will do so in 2002, representing a 27% jump. IDC's estimate for Q4 2001 includes revenue generated from travel-related purchases.

MOBILE INTERNET IN EUROPE - Analysys Research predicts that there will be 110 million always-on mobile internet users in Western Europe by 2006. Anaysys reports that Vodafone, Orange and Telefonica Movile will gain EUR 23 billion in additional wireless data revenue by that time. Business users will the primary growth promoters in Western Europe.

For Facts and Stats on the New Economy, visit our Facts and Stats page.  Also, see our special State of the Internet report on this page. For daily, topical Facts and Stats visit our Hot In Tech page.

CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2001

Cisco’s top policy focuses for 2001 are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment.  To read or listen to our thoughts on these issues, please visit our Government Affairs home page or our visit our multimedia section . http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html

E-UPDATE ARCHIVE

To view past issues of Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page . http://www.cisco.com/gov/archive/eupdates/index.html

DISCLAIMER

Positions in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of Government Affairs.  We offer articles on topics of interest to our audience to further the debate on the issues that are important to high-tech.  To view our positions on the policy matters that we care about, please visit our Government Affairs homepage. – http://www.cisco.com/gov

CISCO.COM/GOV AND E-UPDATE FEEDBACK

As we continue to build out Cisco’s Government Affairs web site, as well as this service, this E-Update, we welcome comments, criticisms, praise and suggestions.  Please send any feedback to John Earnhardt at jearnhar@cisco.com.

To contact any member of the Government Affairs team, please visit our “Contact Us ” page. http://www.cisco.com/gov/contact/index_ext.html

SUBSCRIBING/UNSUBSCRIBING:

You are receiving this update because you requested it.  If you no longer wish to receive this update, send a message with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com.

If you received this message because it was forwarded to you and you wish to subscribe to this weekly E-Update, please send a message to Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line.  Or, visit our Government Affairs homepage (www.cisco.com/gov) and click on the “Subscribe” button in the lower left-hand corner.