The assessment of trends and characteristics of e-business development in the economies of countries located in different parts of the world must be limited only to the most basic directions due to time and cost constraints. Therefore, research conducted by specialized agencies of the European Commission has been concentrated on three areas: the European Union, the United States of America, and Japan.
Recently published comparative data refer to 2002. Although data for 2003 are already known, they are only available for the European Union, which is why they will not be cited further. The discussed data come from available international statistical sources and comparisons, such as the Global Information Technology Report, published by the World Economic Forum in 2003.
ICT infrastructure
The basic condition for enterprises to obtain benefits from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is access to the network. These technologies themselves cannot cause economic growth, but they are a tool enabling significant increases in the efficiency of economic activities. This requires network infrastructure, both at the national level and at the level of individual enterprises. In general, the development of the network and its quality depend on the level of economic development. However, there are known cases where, in countries with similar gross national income per capita, ICT infrastructure levels differed. This is influenced not only by the level of wealth but also by legal regulations, economic strategies, and geographical specifics.
In all economically advanced countries, access to the Internet is widespread and is estimated to have already reached a saturation point. In fact, access indicators are almost identical in Europe, the USA, and Japan. However, the methods of accessing the Internet are not identical. In general, a tendency to use broadband access methods can be observed, and this will likely be dominant in all economically developed countries in the coming years.
However, in all analyses concerning infrastructure, especially from 2003, it is emphasized that in that year, following the accession of 10 further countries to the European Union, most of which are more technologically backward, all e-business indicators for the EU will deteriorate.
As in the case of the Internet, the popularity of using three forms of computer networks: LAN, intranet, and extranet, was also similar.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2004.