8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy (Opinion)
By Craig Settles. Government Technology, December 15, 2011. "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..."
Further information on 8 Surprising Findings About the Broadband Economy (Opinion)
Last updated: 16 December 2011
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After the Stimulus: Broadband and Economic Development - in pdf format (762kb)
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(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Community Broadband Snapshot Report. National survey report prepared by: Craig Settles, October 2011.
"Last year the U.S. broadband stimulus program finished awarding public, private and nonprofit organizations over $7 billion to build new broadband infrastructure, create public computing centers and implement broadband adoption programs. Concurrently, hundreds of millions have come from private and other public sources for broadband. Improving economic development is a driving force behind these investments.
What have we achieved for our investments, particularly in underserved urban and rural communities? It is a little early in the process, though, and only a small portion of the stimulus checks have been issued. Perhaps the more important question is, what economic outcomes can we hope to achieve in the next two or three years? This survey's results provide a number of clues..."