Category: Jim Baller Presentations

Jim Baller – Ashley Stelfox, CLIC Webinar on Key Legal Issues in Public-Private Partnerships

CLIC Webinar on Key Legal Issues in Public-Private Partnerships

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.

Going Big with a Gig at Case Western Reserve University

Some still question whether we need FTTH networks, suggesting that modest copper upgrades will be fine for most over the next 5-10 years. When it comes to essential infrastructure, the idea that we should “cut costs” by operating right on the margin usually ends poorly — and costs more, particularly in lost opportunities.