The Net Benefits of Broadband Adoption: An Empirical Case Study of Rural Indiana Alison Grant, Ph.D. Student, Researcher, & Instructor, Dept of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University
The presentation will provide an overview of a study conducted by Alison Grant, Dr. Wallace Tyner and Dr. Larry DeBoer of Purdue University that outlines and projects the statewide net benefits that could be obtained from installation of rural broadband in all of the areas served by Rural Electric Member Cooperatives (REMC) in the state of Indiana. If such a network were built, about 80 percent of the landmass would be served, and it could provide $12 billion in net present value benefits. From a societal perspective, the rural broadband investment is clearly quite attractive. However, the anticipated revenue from customers would not be adequate to cover the total system costs, so some form of external assistance would be needed to incentivize the investments.