Convergence of traditional telephony, enhanced telecommunications, private data networking, and the Internet into hypercommunications: Implications of the new economy of the network for Florida agribusinesses

Florida agribusinesses will increasingly rely on networked hypercommunications services and technologies as agriculture becomes more information intensive. The telecommunications model requires separate networks, services, and devices for different message forms. The broadband hypercommunications model that is replacing telecommunications is based on a single, converged network that interconnects diverse services and devices. Hypercommunications use packet switching and digitization, allowing voice and high-speed data communications to be combined inexpensively. The growing economic necessity for high-speed access to hypercommunications in agriculture comes from the interaction of communication, technology, and information.;Powerful network effects from technical and economic properties of hypercommunications create two new economic realities for agribusinesses. First, a greater volume of communications and a wider choice of message types that can be sent over greater distances can be purchased for less cost using hypercommunications. Second, hypercommunication services and technologies are complicated. In order to profit, agribusinesses need to understand the difference between bandwidth and data rate, wireline and wireless infrastructures, and source and signal domains. The four major services of traditional telephony, enhanced telecommunications, private data networks, and Internet are still sold separately, but new technologies allow them to be sold as one. Business benefits of convergence are so strong that buying services separately will become increasingly inefficient.;The high-speed access many agribusinesses need (or shortly will require) does not come automatically in Florida. In rural Florida especially, the wireline telephone infrastructure cannot support data rates of 14.4 kbps in some areas. The 1996 Telecommunications Act guarantees high-speed (200 kbps) access under universal access provisions, but it is estimated that it will be three to five years before 56 kbps speeds are universally available in Florida. However, competition among communication providers has led to the introduction of new wireline and wireless infrastructures for high-speed access.;Eighteen unique characteristics of agriculture, along with vertical and horizontal integration and cooperation and competitive strategies, are used to identify the unique hypercommunication needs of Florida agribusinesses. A portfolio strategy tree and a conceptual pricing model are used to simplify the decisions agribusinesses will be making about specific services and technologies as convergence occurs.