About the Workshop

The specification and estimation of telecommunication demand models has, for the most part, focused on the demand for access, usage and vertical products and services rather than non-switched access. The definitive work for such studies is Lester Taylor's, Telecommunications Demand in Theory and Practice (1994). Paul Rappoport's National Telecommunications Demand Study provided the contexts and the data for estimating detailed residential and business demand models. Unfortunately, this meant that models for non-switched access (special access and data services) were only minimally considered.

With the rapid growth of the Internet, attention has refocused on the demand for special access and bandwidth. Fueling this interest are a number of factors including the potential for Internet telephony, declining prices of data services and Internet access, the growing role of the Internet in business to business communications and the emergence of e-commerce and e-marketing.

This research-in-progress studies the question of how to model demand for bandwidth. The framework uses both survey and non-survey information and links an industry-occupation matrix with estimated occupation specific indices of Internet intensity. The resulting estimates of "bandwidth" are then compared to other measures of bandwidth (e.g. voice grade equivalents). Specific bandwidth estimates are presented for the Philadelphia MSA.

Participants include:

• Professor James Alleman, Columbia University
  
• Professor Lester Taylor, University of Arizona
  
• Professor Paul Rappoport, Temple University