I’m looking for something else tonight – but ran into this article that drew me in. While I found it in Government Technology, Settles also writes for the Daily Yonder. I need to get back to my original search – but wanted to quickly point folks to Settle’s 8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy…
- Rural economic developers appear to be well ahead of their urban counterparts in the area of planning.
- “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.
- 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.”
- “Finding a job” is one of the most frequently cited personal economic benefits of broadband for low-income populations
- As expected, fiber is clearly seen as the leading broadband technology to attract businesses to a community.
- Not all wired broadband technologies are equal.
- Perseverance is still important.
- 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’ll have to check out the original article (or his full report) for more details.