Okay, quick personal story. There's a large area in $town that a certain individual has owned for about 15 years or so. It's perfect for several new industrial plants or branch offices. The overall economy is kind of stagnant.
I can think of at least 7 large companies who have inquired about the area. They listed 4 things they needed, in no certain order: easy highway access, water, electricity, high speed (1Gbps+) internet. It took 12 years before water and electricity got there. Now we're building fiber to that area. If any of those companies take a second look and come back, we're taking about many hundreds of high paying new jobs for the area. This will also spur business growth in a dying downtown area - as people have jobs and more disposable income, they seek to spend it. Interesting study here: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_110JKR.pdf There also seems to be, on average, a 3% increase in property values in areas with "very high speed" (depends on the study) broadband. In Kansas City, a new startup-culture was created. Lots of new small businesses, many not even technology related. As people come in to work and create new businesses they have to eat and find things to do as well. On Sun, Mar 13, 2016 at 12:09 AM, CBB - Jay Fuller <[email protected]> wrote: > > From Ken: > > > As far as economic growth, gigabit Internet isn't going to magically bring > economic growth. But if you don't have access to basic broadband, you > definitely are shut out of part of the economy. One thing I've seen a lot > in my area is the impact of the efficiency requirements of the Affordable > Healthcare Act. Insurance and healthcare companies are moving buildings > full of office workers to work from home, in order to cut their overhead > costs. Customers who used to commute 30 miles to the suburbs now need > broadband to work from home, and 1M/384K DSL isn't good enough, if they can > even get that. But if they can get reliable 3/1 from a WISP, they still > have a job, plus other people out here in the country can get those jobs. > And now they have a couple hours they used to spend commuting to spend with > their families. I think this is a real life example of economic impact of > broadband, or the flip side, the impact of lack of broadband if you're on > the wrong side of the digital divide. > > > > > I would be very interested to see some kind of report of employment data and > what projects have > succeeded in "gigabit" markets vs. standard internet markets. Is there > really that much of a difference... > Yes, like many of you, I know most people use the internet for netflix > (among other things). > > What else is out there and more importantly, what does gigabit enable? > >
