Category: Economic Development

This is for Everyone: The Case for Universal Digitisation

Written with the well-known cross-sector charity Go ON UK, this report presents the socioeconomic case for universal digitisation, particularly in the United Kingdom. Based on quantitative research, it highlights the socioeconomic case for improving the digital infrastructure and promoting usage. We realise the benefits of the internet – including the economic, social, and community benefits – only when everyone is online.

Strategic Networks Group: “e-NC Strategy Report”

e-NC and SNG announced the findings of a comprehensive study of residents and businesses in the state of North Carolina.  In all, 30,000 households and 70,000 businesses and organizations were surveyed to uncover utilization of broadband and e-solutions statewide, with 1,492 households and 6,266 businesses and organizations responding. The e-Solutions Benchmarking and accompanying e-Strategy report from SNG was funded by a grant to the e-North Carolina Authority by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce

Smart Infrastructure in New England: An investment for growth & prosperity

In an era when everything is always moving — when people, products, services, information, and capital have to get from one place  to another within a region or around the world — infrastructure is the enabler. In the 21st century, infrastructure is about connectivity. Bringing together the leading assets and capabilities, in the most efficient way, is the driving strategy that makes an infrastructure “smart” — that makes an infrastructure the accelerator of economic growth and prosperity.

Moving the Needle Forward on Broadband and Economic Development

August and September, in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), Craig Settles conducted a national survey of IEDC members and others affiliated with IEDC. The primary goal was to get a snapshot of how broadband impacts local economic outcomes. A secondary goal was to gather some insights to leveraging broadband as an economic development asset.

The Killer App: Economic Development and Job Creation

By Jim Baller

Economic development has been the “killer app” of community broadband, particularly fiber-to-the-home projects, during the last fifteen years. What’s more, economic development is likely to become an even more powerful driver of community broadband in the years ahead, as our knowledge of the relationship between high-capacity broadband connectivity and economic development continues to grow and mature, and as the lessons learned from the federal broadband stimulus program, Google fiber, Gig.U, and other gigabit initiatives work their way across the nation. This paper examines what we know about the relationship between broadband and economic development today, what we are likely to learn in the months and years ahead, and what this means for our communities and our nation.

Eliminating the Waiting Game and Driving Network Uptake

By Doug Adams & Michael Curri, Strategic Networks Group

In working across the globe and working with multiple carriers deploying new, more robust broadband networks, Strategic Networks Group (SNG) consistently comes up against the notion that once the network is built, adoption will naturally follow. “Build it and they will come” is a school of thought that expresses the great hope that potential subscribers will naturally adopt, however this notion goes against what we have always known about technology adoption.

Let’s Make a Deal: Price Sensitivity and Optimal Subsidies

This study uses a rich dataset collected by Connected Nation in 2011 through Random Digit Dial (RDD) telephone interviews with 15,082 adult heads of households who do not subscribe to home broadband service across a heterogeneous selection of states. This survey research aims to better understand demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of non-adopters and assess key barriers to broadband adoption.

Digital Divide: Expanding Broadband Access to Small Businesses

Testimony of The Honorable Lawrence E. Strickling Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information National Telecommunications and Information Administration United States Department of Commerce. Before the Committee on Small Business United States House of Representatives.

Innovation and Employment in the Intelligent Community

In 2013, Intelligent Community Forum will examine the relationship between innovation – one of the Intelligent Community Indicators – and employment in communities around the world. A massive body of evidence points to the fact that innovation creates prosperity. The prosperity flows from new demand – who needed an iPod or iPad until one was created? – or from empowering us to do more with the same resources of raw materials, people and money. But prosperity is not always the same as employment. In each recession of the past 50 years, job recovery has been significantly slower than in the previous recession. The recent recession in the industrialized world is only the most dramatic example of a “jobless recovery” – and that is in nations managing to post positive economic numbers at all.

Florida Fiber: Martin County Saves Big With Gigabit Network

Martin County, located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, faced a problem shared by local governments across the nation: the rapidly escalating cost of telecommunications access. For ten years, the County had connected schools and other public facilities with leased lines from the local cable company but Comcast was threatening to radically increase its prices after the lease expired in 2010.