New research shows a more than 200% growth rate for businesses in rural areas with high broadband utilization rates.
The article highlights many examples, starting with Minnesota…
One of the biggest rural gaming events in the country, the GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, is supporting young people to explore technology and all it offers in Bemidji, Minnesota.
“We had started to see nationally some very large events that were selling out quickly, all about eSports,” Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, told the Daily Yonder in a Zoom interview. “And we thought, what a better way to deliver a new, exciting opportunity for our region and leverage the network that we have built and our members have invested in.”
And they give some general stats and perspective…
“What we find is when you expose young kids to broadband, what research has shown is you actually get higher broadband adoption rates,” Weinstein said. “And it’s not the kids who are using their allowance to get broadband subscriptions for the household – it’s the adults. That exposure that kids have in various ways actually gets their parents exposure as well and gets you those higher broadband adoption rates in communities.”
The report also found that in areas with high adoption rates of broadband, self-employment increased by 10% or more.
“Counties that effectively utilize broadband are seeing marked improvements in local economic dynamism, suggesting that broadband can help mitigate the economic disadvantages often faced by rural areas,” the report concluded.