The pork industry is suffering unfairly from the Swine Flu outbreak, as people (and some governments) link pork products with the rapidly spreading H1N1 virus, but there is one industry that could benefit, besides major drug manufacturers.
Telecom is one answer to the need for people to work, shop, get an education and communicate without getting onto a commuter train or an airplane, or risking the spread of germs in an office or school. The Yankee Group said today that it “believes that the threat of pandemic will prompt companies to consider how Anywhere connectivity will benefit their operations and open their organizations to a mobile workforce, equipped to successfully handle disrupting events.”
Telecom service providers may have to work harder at making it possible for all kinds of customers — large and small business, government, education and health care – to make use of services that can keep everyone productive even when being in the same place is unwise or impossible.
No one wants to capitalize on a tragedy, but there have been too many distance learning, telemedicine, collaboration and communication tools available for a long time and not being pervasively used.
Businesses have a business decision to make about how much they want to invest in keeping employees connected but there are other institutions –government and schools – that need access to similar technology at an affordable price and on a reasonable basis.
When a school shuts down, as one several miles from my home did this week, there should be ways of keeping students and teachers connected electronically. Obviously, universal broadband would be required to do this meaningfully, but if some capabilities were available there would be even more incentives than exist today for every home to have a computer and a broadband connection.