BROADBAND: A CATALYST TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT
This essay briefly talks about the major role by which broadband can serve as a
positive role or medium of which a nation can experience national development.
As national development is the ability of a nation to improve the lives of its
citizens in all ramifications leading to economic growth and cure to
unemployment.
It is said that in time past the transmission of information be it to an organization
or group of people may take days, weeks, months or even years as of in the days
of old before it gets to its final destination. A typical example is the occurrence of
the EBOLA virus of which it killed thousands of people. Research has it according
to "WHO" that it killed over 10,000 people worldwide. Not to talk of our fore
fathers era, millions and billions of people would have died without been able to
diagnose the real cause of their death. After all, what are the signs? Diarrhoea?
Which can happen to any individual as a result of constant vomiting due to the
fact that it may be because of the drugs taken before or after eating as the vase
may be. Or is it the case of been weak, which may be caused as a result of stress
or malaria. Not forgetting the fact that it takes days for the person to die, to
mention a few. How then can such persons be able to solve their problems in
ancient days? But with the advent of broadband technology such a problem has
been solve if not to the fullest, at least to some extent.
So therefore, this write-up will extensively diagnose problem in a nation whereby
providing preferred solution of using broadband technology leading to national
development as we should be aware of the fact that a growth of a nation should
tally with the development, as increase in growth should lead to increase in
development.

INTRODUCTION
According to Mr.FC CHETE,the Dean of computer science, Auchi polytechnic,
Auchi. In one of his classes on broadband, he defined broadband as a high
capacity transmission technique using a wide range of frequencies which enables
a large number of messages to be communicated simultaneously.
Different criteria for broadband have been applied in different contents and at
different times. It origin is in physics which include the study of sound and
electricity. Also acoustics which is related to sound or sense of hearing as a result
of musical instrument or nature sounds and not forgetting radio systems
engineering where it has had been used with a meaning similar to wideband.
Later, with the advent of telecommunications, the term was mainly used for
transmission over multiple channels. Whereas, a pass band signal is also
modulated so that is occupies higher frequencies compared to baseband signal
which is bound to lowest end of spectrum as in low sound wave. Though it is still
occupying a single channel. The key difference is that what is typically considered
a broadband signal in this sense is a signal that occupies multiple non-maskings or
orthogonal pass band, thus allowing for much higher capacity throughout over a
single medium but with the additional complexity in the transmitter or receiver
circuitry.
Finally, the term became popularised through the 1990 as a marketing term for
internet access that was faster than dialup access in the original internet
technology which was limited to kilobits/s. each channel is 4 MHz wide and it uses
an extensive range of frequencies to effortlessly rely and receive data between
networks.
The transmission can be done in two major ways which include, radio and
television transmission.
In radio, a very narrow band will carry Morse code will carry speech and a still
broader band will carry music without losing the high audio frequencies required
for realistic sound reproduction. The broadband is often divided into channels or
frequency bins using passband techniques to allow frequency division
multiplexing instead of sending a high quality signal.
A television antenna may be described as broadband because it is capable of
receiving a wide range of channels, while a signal-frequency or LO-VHF antenna is
narrowband since it receives only 1 to 5 channels. The united state US federal
standard FS-1037C defines broadband as a synonym for wideband.
Having known all these, how can broadband serve as a catalyst of national
development?

BROADBAND A CATALYST FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Broadband to a Nation is a important as the citizen living in it coupled with the
fact that when it is implemented its serves as a major means for national
development which will lead to increase in their public and private sector leading
to a better life.
Having been taking it wise by implementing broadband to a Nation, the
following are the major ways through which a Nation will experience National
development as a result.
Firstly, IMPROVED TELEHEALTH IN A NATION. It’s very expedient for both the
Government and private sector to take this point into consideration. Why? A
Nation may not need it yet but could some day or know an organization that
needs it using Nigeria as a case study. During the attack of the deadly Virus Ebola
in Nigeria, some health services already let nurses check in on patient in their
homes using existing phone line performance. But its functionality is limited due
to the fact that many patients may be sick and trying to get to them at the same
time after they have been discharged or still in the ward would be null and void.
And even in the case of Ebola, it is very difficult to be notified of various victims of
the disease without it been passed to the next available victim. But with the
advent of broadband technology nurses and doctors will use it to conduct natural
video consult with remote patient to monitor life-sustaining medical equipment in
patient wounds and run life therapy and exercise sections with rural patients who
will no longer have to travel hundreds of kilometres to capital city specialist. So
therefore, Government should implement this in all areas of the nation be it in the
urban or rural settlement in respective of the cost.
Secondly, IMPROVED EMOTE LEARNING AMONGST STUDENTS. It was popularly
said by a profound writer that education is the key to success. Another said that
the joy of a parent is to see their children succeed in school. But how can this be
actualized if student haven’t given a convenient area and the facility to learn even
if some schools may seem they have it. Research has it that even this well
facilitated schools in the Nation may be able to train and teach their students, but
what happen when this student are at home? As it is popularly said that you can
force a horse to the river, but you cannot force it to drink water. majority of these
schools have introduce many forms of technology but haven’t fully reached their
main goal. A very good example is the advent of fibre connections, but sharing
them amongst 1000 or more users means glacial speed internet that often leave
teachers struggling to access online resources which they continuously engage
them selves in without eventually reaching their goal leading to them giving up.
But with the advent of broadband technology it will speed up the overall school
performance which allows students participates in farewell classes using
interactive white band and videoconferencing from their homes. This may sound
like a luxury in city areas but in rural areas where small schools cant offer many
essential classes because they don’t have enough school student to justify a
teacher virtual classes which will link students across large geographical distant
and make otherwise unviable classes possible. So therefore, Government should
use this medium in monitoring this student while in school and out of school. This
factor will be very efficient and productive in the higher institutions.
Thirdly, IMPROVED VIDEO CONFERENCING IN A NATION. More than 50% of
citizens and non citizens in a nation enjoy a full deal of video conferencing. Such
as skype which is the most popularly used. Naysayer’s inevitable like to talk about
how well skype offer video over the internet even as it is made free to all. But
quality and bandwidth varies only and those depending too heavily on skype are
often disappointed. Another very good example is business and political meetings
which are held in a central location leading to participants travelling from place to
place. Take for example; if the president of Nigeria has a meeting with all the
Government in the country, it simply requires that all Governors will have to leave
their state to attend this crucial meeting with the president. But after the advent
of broadband technology, it has increased bandwidth and guaranteed quality of
services which will ensure a better and a quality result all around whether you are
running skype or video conferencing as part of other services. These open
tremendous opportunity like communicating with love ones, learning a new
language with a native speaker, conduct cooperate board meetings without the
cost and bother of travelling to a central location. On a different angel, if a
Governor has an emergency outside the country, he o she may not get the
accurate information of what is happening in the country as regard to speed. But
if the broadband technology is embraced, he or she will have a full detail of what
is going on in the country at a very high speed in terms of its bandwidth. Not
forgetting the fact that it can be of help in high speed theft detecting. Like in the
case of the United State most dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden. With this, it will
take us back to the Boko Haram terrorising of our nation. If the Government can
embrace this broadband technology, it will help a great lot in capturing these
terrorist.
Fourthly, WORKING FROM HOME ADVANTAGE. As days goes by, the population of
a Nation increases compare to the death rate, base on this fact using Lagos as an
example. Getting to your place of work is usually very difficult due to the traffic
jam that is been experienced. A man leaves is home very early in the morning and
returns very late at night, due to the hold-up that he may experience. In some
cases he gets to his place o work very late which may result to question mark by
his boss. This problem will continue unless the Government does something about
it. Another problem that is been faced in a nation is when a employee couldn’t
make it to work, due to personal issues. At this point the job that is suppose to be
done by this employees left hanging or given to another employee making it a
work load for that person. But with the introduction of broadband technology, this
problem has been solved. In the case of an employee been held in a traffic jam
broadband technology has solved that because the employee can decide to start
right from the car or even decide to perform his duty before the next day at home.
Also in the case of this emergency personal issue the employee will have to work
from home. Doing all that was supposed to be done in the office in the room.
Note this does not create rooms for laziness as activities that the employee
performs as regards to his job is well monitored by the company as he cannot
decide not to do anything at home because the employee’s jobs by that time will
be at risk. So therefore Government should grab this technology to solve this
problem in a Nation.
Fifthly, JOB CREATION. A national broadband strategy will spur economic
development and job creation. The qualitative and quantitative evidence is clear
and consistent at the individual, local or community and national levels, the
deployment of fast, reliable and affordable broadband will stimulate tremendous
economic development and create hundreds of thousands if not millions of good
paying jobs that might otherwise be lost or go offshore. This major point has
made China, India and America as a very powerful workforce worldwide.
In addition, it will not be complete if I don’t make known the challenges faced as
government should be aware of it in other to solve it. More so people see it as a
name that has many definitions. Others see it as a public sector investment,
indicating a need to ensure affordable access across all economic sectors. Other
countries view it as network deployment having seen as primarily private sector-
matter as they consider funding of such priorities. As some editions of broadband
see it as an ecosystem consisting of supply and demands components, both of
which are equally important if the expansion of broadband networks and services
is to be stressful.
More so, e-health and tele-health can thrive with the input of fast broadband,
quick transfer of medical images and documents, video consultations, secure of
records, payment and systems. This benefit is for all and goes beyond addressing
the medical gap between urban and regional areas.
CONCLUSION
Broadband technology if embraced by the government will lead drastically to a
great deal of national development as citizens will experience work and life
balance, connecting with those that matter, better for busy house holds,
entertainment for every one, a bright future, healthier options and a lots more.

REFERENCES
1. WIKIPEDIA(mobile), CC BY-SA 3.0,2012
2. BENTON FOUNDATION, UN,2013
3. MR. CHETE FC, LECTURE ON BROADBAND,FEDERAL AUCHI POLYTECHNIC