[1st-mile-nm] 8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy
Richard Lowenberg
rl at 1st-mile.com
Fri Dec 16 10:43:01 PST 2011
The following article in Government Technology magazine is by
friend and broadband activist/advisor, Craig Settles.
It may be of most interest to those of you involved in the
economic development aspects of community broadband networking.
The report referred to at the article's end can be found at:
www.cjspeaks.com/msp/IEDC2011.pdf
RL
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8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy (Opinion)
http://www.govtech.com/e-government/8-Surprising-Findings-About-the-Broadband-Economy.html
December 15, 2011 By Craig Settles
Plenty of articles have been written that assert one of the main
benefits that broadband delivers is the ability to impact economic
development. However, are we getting the complete picture of what it
takes to achieve this goal?
I don’t think we are. The absence of key details impedes communities’
attempts to generate economic outcomes.
Economists, the FCC, a parade of private-sector companies and industry
trade associations are frequently cited — along with all sorts of
numbers that claim to prove the economic value of broadband. But one
source it seems you don’t see enough is economic development
professionals, the people who work day in and day out to save, maintain
and grow local economies.
Several years ago I started partnering with the International Economic
Development Council (IEDC) to take an annual survey of professionals in
this field. I’ve posed to them the commonly referenced economic outcomes
and the main broadband issues in order to learn how accurate they think
the conventional wisdom of the moment is. Often the data contradicts the
assumptions policymakers make about broadband.
The U.S. stimulus of 2009 awarded public, private and nonprofit
organizations more than $7 billion to build new broadband
infrastructure, create public computing centers and implement broadband
adoption programs. Hundreds of millions more has been spent by private
companies and other federal agency sources. Improving economic
development is a driving force behind these investments.
It’s a little early in the infrastructure deployment process, though,
and only a portion of the stimulus checks have been issued. That made it
difficult to use this year’s survey to gauge the impact of
stimulus-funded networks on local economies. But I did want to determine
what economic outcomes we can hope to achieve in the next two or three
years. My survey produced results that reveal several clues.
Here’s a sampling of this year’s findings and some of my thoughts on
what these numbers signify:
1. Rural economic developers appear to be well ahead of their urban
counterparts in the area of planning. Fifty-eight percent of rural
respondents either have broadband strategies and tactics worked into
their economic development plans, or are writing plans currently with
these elements. Only 39 percent of urban respondents have done the same.
Given reports this year that many rural communities are shrinking and
some are near death, it makes sense they’re being more proactive; they
see broadband as the last best hope for survival. That said, urban areas
shouldn’t get complacent about this type of planning. Broadband doesn’t
impact economic development without planning.
2. “We need a gigabit” has become the rallying call for broadband
supporters everywhere; rural survey respondents say that 100 to 120 Mbps
is the minimum they’ll need during the next three years to impact their
local economies.
I’m bullish on gigabit networks being a national goal, but this isn’t a
universal need at the moment. A 100 Mbps network in small towns and
rural counties has fewer concurrent network users to support than
mid-size and large urban areas, so rural areas can be content with 100
Mbps. The reality is, a fiber network with smaller capacity is
relatively cheap to ramp up to higher bandwidth.
3. While the FCC and other policymakers continue to try to make a silk
purse from a 4Mbps sow’s ear, economic development professionals aren’t
buying it. At least 92 percent see no economic impact coming from this
minimum national “standard.”
4. “Finding a job” is one of the most frequently cited personal
economic benefits of broadband for low-income populations. Economic
development professionals, though, rate it at the bottom of the list of
potential economic outcomes.
When finding a job is perceived as the major economic goal, the
tendency for policymakers is to champion less robust networks, and
computing devices with less horsepower and tiny screens. How much
capacity do you need to scan job listings and send email? But when
communities have large numbers of people with limited or obsolete
skills, the greater goal is to use broadband to significantly beef up
their skills or retrain them for different, more financially rewarding
industries. This means distance learning, video and other complex
high-bandwidth applications.
5. As expected, fiber is clearly seen as the leading broadband
technology to attract businesses to a community. However, wireless is
viewed as a strong contender for increasing the number of startups in a
community.
6. Not all wired broadband technologies are equal. Whereas fiber
networks are clearly viewed by survey respondents as having a greater
impact than wireless on a range of economic outcomes, cable is viewed as
only slightly more effective than wireless despite the industry’s PR and
marketing efforts.
The primary message here is that, if communities have a choice they
should go with fiber if it can be afforded. But if their only choice is
cable or wireless, they might want to evaluate their wireless options.
Stakeholders also should remember that not all wireless is equal,
either. Rick Harnish, president of the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA),
lays out the differences and why they matter in this interview on the
radio talk show Gigabit Nation.
7. Perseverance is still important. Although 19 percent applied and
didn’t win a stimulus grant, another 11 percent whose communities also
didn’t win kept fighting for money and got their projects funded through
state or other federal grants.
8. As the second decade of the new millennium moves along, 7 percent of
respondents still only have dialup as their broadband option; 13 percent
of rural respondents say they don’t expect to ever have broadband
sufficient enough to impact economic development.
You can download the full survey analysis report . Every community is
different, of course, so look at these findings as a starting point to
extensive analysis of local conditions and broadband needs. What’s also
informative is reading the written comments of 169 of the survey
participants who offer advice on getting better broadband into
communities that need it.
Craig Settles, host of radio talk show Gigabit Nation , is a broadband
industry analyst and consultant who helps organizations develop
effective broadband strategies . Follow him on Twitter (@cjsettles ) or
via his blog .
--
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110 / 505-603-5200
www.1st-mile.com
rl at 1st-mile.com
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