TATOA Policy

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TATOA Policy Legal TrackImpact of Broadband
Deployment to Local GovernmentsOctober 24-25,
2013Seabrook, Texas
Broadband and Economic Development Fact or
Fiction
Jim Baller Baller Herbst Law Group,
PCWashington, DC [phone] Jim_at_Baller.com
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Growing List of Gigabit Service Providers









And many more .

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Economic Development is,and has always been,
the Number 1 Driver of Community Broadband
Projects
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But What is Economic Development?

• The purpose of local economic development
  is to build up the economic capacity of a local
  area to improve its economic future and the
  quality of life for all.  It is a process by
  which public, business and nongovernmental sector
  partners work collectively to create better
  conditions for economic growth and employment
  generation.
• World Bank, http//bit.ly/S2Rtp4

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Economic Development Strategies

• Many strategies, endless variations
• Government gt Businesses/Institutions gt
  Residents?
• Attract a few large employers, a larger number of
  smaller employers, or a combination of both?
• Increase the profitability of local businesses,
  the number or quality of local jobs, or some of
  each?
• Support of all local industries or target
  particular industries e.g., high-tech, health
  care, data centers, etc. ?
• Community or regional approaches?

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Economic Development Tools

• Economic Development Handbook 2013,
  http//goo.gl/2Lv4nM
• Tax incentives (property, Tax Increment
  Financing, TEDA, etc.)
• Loans, grants, loan guarantees, or other
  financial incentives
• Special districts of various kinds, empowerment
  zones
• Attractive low-cost sites or facilities
• Free or accelerated franchises, permits, other
  approvals
• Support workforce development and training
• Upgrade roads, sewers, power
• Use of purchasing power to create anchor
  tenancy
• Help aggregate demand

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Strong Anecdotal Evidence That Broadband gt
Economic Development

• Anecdotal Evidence (See, e.g., Baller Herbst,
  ISLR, Broadband Communities, Settles, NewCom
  websites)
• Huge and rapidly growing body of anecdotal
  evidence (including effect of lack of advanced
  capabilities (e.g., Danville, VA)
• Advanced broadband capabilities now a critical
  factor in site selection (See Site Selection
  Magazine)
• Economic development professionals starting to
  stress importance of advanced broadband
  capabilities 76 say at least 100 Mbps
  necessary (See Settles surveys)

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Harder to Quantify the RelationshipBetween
Broadband and Economic Development

• A broadband expert, an economic development
  specialist, and a statistician
• For fiber, its still very early limited FTTH
  data base
• Circumstances vary widely
• Broadband only one of several critical factors
  (also skilled work-force costs of labor, energy,
  environmental compliance, taxes ease of doing
  business proximity of universities, lenders,
  clusters attractiveness of community to
  employees (e.g., quality of schools, things to
  do, etc.) transportation (airports, highways,
  railroads, telecom)
• Timing is crucial, for all concerned

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What Can and Cant We Say?

• Formal Studies (collected at www.baller.com/econde
  v.html)
• We can say that theres an association between
  broadband and economic development
• We cant say that X of investment in broadband
  or FTTH will yield Y units of economic
  development or Z jobs
• We can say that generally, broadband adoption
  gt60, availability gt85, and download speed
  gt10 do have meaningful impacts on growth rates
  of economic health measures in non-metropolitan
  counties. Whitacre, Gallardo, and Strover,
  http//goo.gl/Ai5bJf
• We cant say that this is also true for FTTH no
  studies yet

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What Else Can and Cant We Say?

• We can say that broadband is responsible for
  22.4 of all new jobs SNG, http//goo.gl/vczAYT
  
• We cant say that this is true of FTTH no
  studies yet
• We can say that FTTH annually enables at least
  700,000 individuals working from home to add at
  least 40 billion to the US economy RVA,
  http//goo.gl/eGfRkG
• We can say that nearly 90 of part-time
  businesses (which contribute 141B to the GDP and
  employ 6.6 million) use the Internet extensively
  and 54 say they could not exist without the
  Internet -- Internet Association,
  http//goo.gl/Ru4qwC

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What More Can and Cant We Say?

• We can say that FTTH is seen by nearly 80-90 of
  housing shoppers as a prime new housing amenity
  -- RVA
• We can say that FTTH adds 5,337-6,451 to
  housing values at 300,000 RVA

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Thanks!