The following is a guest posting by Graham Richard, former Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Graham Richard

States are essential to broadband expansion according to a new Pew Center report. As a way to promote economic growth, states are beginning to view broadband Internet as a means to deliver important and necessary services like education and health care. “By some measures, many states lack capacity-dedicated staff and resources-to develop and implement new broadband policies, negotiate effectively with private-sector providers or resolve thorny infrastructure issues, such as coordinating access across many different jurisdictions for fiber cable or utility pole attachments,” Pew’s report states. Focusing on broadband deployment is nearly impossible when states lack adequate staff, resources and implementation plans.

This is the reason we need more leaders who understand the value of broadband and public private partnerships like the one I facilitated as mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fort Wayne and Verizon teamed up to make the city one of the first in the country to have fiber-optic broadband service (FiOS). This venture generated new business for Fort Wayne and resulted in significant cost-savings for the city. Broadband Internet allowed Indiana clinics to put medical records online giving doctors instant access, enabling them to treat patients more efficiently and effectively. And that’s just one example.

Check out my website for more ideas on how to bring broadband to your area.

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A new research report warns Net neutrality regulation is a catalyst for severe job loss and diminished investment for the broadband industry. Research authors Charles Davidson and Bret Swanson believe policymakers should be doing what they can to foster not stifle job creation. The report shows “large investments and rapid innovation across the ecosystem have been spurred by the light-touch regulatory approach taken by the FCC over the last several years.” Without regulatory burdens, experts forecast continued investment and job growth. On the other hand, enacting regulation on broadband Internet could have damaging effects.

Read the full report.

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In a Detroit News letter to the editor, Mike Jude discussed the potential impact of Net neutrality on the 95% of Americans who access high speed Internet services. Dr. Jude oversaw a study by Frost & Sullivan, finding “that even with a light regulatory touch, net neutrality could impose a $7 billion a year overhead on the economy with a commensurate loss of 70,000 anticipated jobs in 2011.”

Frost & Sullivan’s study also says Net neutrality legislation could “hamper the FCC’s stated goal of universal broadband — helping every American get online,” costing customers nearly $55 more per month. The legislation would force service providers to charge customers to “support network deployment and management.”

Read some of Dr. Jude’s other articles:

New regulations, rules could bump up access charges
May 11, 2010

Net Neutrality: A Tax on the Internet
May 6, 2010

Net neutrality regulations could endanger wireless carriers’ business
March 12, 2010

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“The question should not be, ‘How do we divide the pie fairly?’ The real question should be, ‘How do we continue to grow the pie?’”

So said Richard Feasey, Public Policy Director of Vodafone, when presenting the findings of a report titled “The Economics of the Internet” on Thursday. The main crux of Feasey’s report focused on the economics of what has become known as the “Internet Ecosystem.”

According to Feasey, there is a lack of real understanding on the part of the global policy community when it comes to understanding the economics of the Internet. Most policy discussions are focused on the consumer side of things, while the majority of Internet revenue is actually generated in relatively obscure business-to-business transactions. These transactions include everything from hardware, software, devices and infrastructure.

Though Feasey’s report and overall tone took on a global characteristic, he did focus on the US by stating, “What happens in the US sets the pace for the rest of the world in terms of Internet policy.” This is why making informed policy decisions at home is so important, and understanding the true economics of the Internet can go along way in achieving that goal.

Finally, Feasey dove into specifics about revenue, investment and rate of return for different sectors of the Internet economy. One of the most interesting examples came when comparing online advertising revenue and broadband infrastructure investment. Feasey found that if all online ad revenue were given to broadband providers, it still would not be enough to fund their current levels of infrastructure investment. And those same broadband providers that are investing billions of dollars per year are receiving a return on investment that is below or equal to the vast majority of S&P 500 companies.

Simply put, the economy of the Internet would not be as valuable without America’s broadband providers who are investing billions in the infrastructure that has now delivered broadband to 95% of Americans. That is a good American story to tell.

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The American Consumer Institute hosted an event on Capitol Hill today to release their latest study, “The Internet Ecosystem: Employment Impacts of National Broadband Policy.” The study offers a third path to addressing today’s economic challenges.  Instead of looking to traditional fiscal and monetary solutions, the author, Dr. Larry Darby, suggests identifying the sectors, like technology, that are creating jobs and avoid adding additional regulatory burdens that might interfere with them.

Dr. Darby, along with co-authors Steve Posciask and Dr. Joseph Fuhr, demonstrates in the study the dramatic impact Net neutrality regulations would have on network investment.  “And you don’t get jobs without investment,” Dr. Darby said.  He urged the room of Hill staff to consider not only the past failures of other government-run Internet networks, but to think about the long term economic opportunities with companies that consistently reinvest their capital.  Nowhere is this more relevant than in this most recent study where empirical data shows how much investment broadband providers commit to America’s communications infrastructure.

You can watch the event in its entirety below.  Click here to download a copy of the report.

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On Wednesday, January 20, 2009 Third Way hosted an event titled, “Help Wanted: New Ideas for American Jobs.” The event featured members of Congress including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD-5), Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-2), Rep. Frank Kratovil (MD-1), Rep. Dan Maffei (NY-25), and Rep. John Boccieri (OH-16). The conversation was focused on creating jobs and promoting recovery and featured conversations on ways that the federal government can support recovery by spurring domestic manufacturing, entrepreneurship, small business, clean energy development, and other activities. Click below to watch archived footage of the event.

That same day, the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies released a report showing that Job seekers who use the Internet are more likely to keep actively looking for jobs and less likely to drop out of the labor pool than those without Internet access, as reported in Hillicon Valley.

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NextGenWeb recently interviewed Dr. William Lehr, an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We discussed the federal government’s mandate to produce a national broadband strategy next year and also broached the issue of Net neutrality. Dr. Lehr shared his views on the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and also the effects additional regulations would have on economic growth, investment and a provider’s ability to appropriately manage their networks. We discussed this and more with Dr. Lehr – you can listen to this podcast by clicking here.

Also today Dr. Lehr released a study commissioned by Broadband for America entitled “Mobile Broadband and Implications for Broadband Competition and Adoption” which concludes that the impact of mobile broadband is pro-competitive.

Key conclusions of the study include:

• Mobile services in the U.S. are currently “robustly competitive.”
• “The overall impact of mobile broadband will be strongly pro-competitive.”
• Mobile and fixed broadband services to remain “distinct and complementary services, rather than as close service substitutes in most user/usage contexts.”
• By “enabling the convergence of mobile communication services and the broadband Internet, mobile broadband can enable the creation of markets for wholly new services (e.g., mobile health, location-aware multimedia, and machine-to-machine communications), as well as enhancing the value of existing broadband services by allowing them to go mobile.”
• “The rapid pace of progress in broadband-related investment in infrastructure, services, content, and applications; and innovation all along the value chain (from services to content to applications to end-user devices) should give us pause before we consider new regulatory obligations on broadband providers.”

You can view the entire study below.

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Can the high-speed Internet help stimulate economic recovery?  More evidence is emerging that the answer is a resounding yes.

The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem is a new study commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an organization comprised of hundreds of the leading media and technology companies in the online advertising business.  The study provides a comprehensive review of the Internet economy, including both the social and the economic benefits.

Some of the findings on the social benefits offer a light-hearted look at how the Internet has changed our lives in just a few short years:

• In 19% of today’s marriages, the bride and groom met online.
• 10% of non-food retailing now happens online.
• As much time is spent on the Internet as is spent in front of the television.

Many other findings prove just how important the Internet is to our economy:

• About 3.1 million people owe their livelihoods to the Internet, which creates 1.2 million direct jobs and 1.9 million indirect jobs.  Just as encouraging, many of these jobs pay higher salaries than the average U.S. wage.
• There is Internet employment in every congressional district.
• The on-line economy (advertising, e-commerce, connectivity and beyond) contributes $300 billion annually to U.S. GDP.

Internet-based jobs cover a wide range of opportunities, which the authors divide into 14 sectors.  Take a closer look at the numbers below.

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“The Broadband Adoption Index: Improving Measurements and Comparisons of Broadband”
The Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Studies
by T. Randolph Beard, PhD, George S. Ford, PhD and Lawrence J. Spiwak, Esq.
July 2009

Click here to read the full study

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“Stim-Novation”: Investing in Research to Spur Innovation and Boost Jobs
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
By Daniel Castro and Rob Atkinson
January 27, 2009

• Spurring additional investment in research will modernize our nation’s research laboratories and facilities, spur additional research, and provide an immediate boost in employment for our economy. Federal support for R&D is critical to innovation.

• 20 billion investment in our national research infrastructure will create or retain approximately 402,000 American jobs for one year.

Click here to read the full study: www.itif.org

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