Obama's Stimulus Package Speech

Obama's stimulus plan:  Good news for technology sector

 

On Saturday December 5th President elect Barack Obama gave us some details of his economic stimulus plan.

 

"..., my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools."

 

New computers in schools is good for the technology sector in general but could be particularly good for Apple which has a very strong presence in the education sector.

 

"As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world."

 

Clearly Obama wants to increase broadband penetration in the United States.  This will be a boost for telecom equipment companies and in particular optical access and transport equipment and IP routing equipment companies.  Since Obama is also pro net neutrality (Obama pledges Net neutrality laws if elected president) this should also benefit broadband content companies such as Google.  

 

"In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year."

 

This is obviously positive for Health Information Management System (HIMS) companies.  But it should also be positive for wireless networking companies such as Aruba (ARUN) that have established a strong presence in hospitals by enabling electronic medical records via mobile data entry by nurses and doctors.