Principles of Economics

Studies that Connect Really Fast Broadband with Economic Boost
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/06/studies-that-connect-really-fast.html

So FTTP (fiber to the premises) can boost the US economy by at least $440 Billion. Full Broadband (higher
percentage adoption) rollout can boost $110 billion/30 million people. More from Peer to peer applications
from 100 mbps symmetrical capability can provide a further increase. There is about a 15% productivity
boost from broadband. Various studies calculate over 10 times GDP return from each dollar invested in
broadband. Scaling to Gigabit access could increase GDP by about an extra 3% per year. [Gartner study] [41]
This is an expanded aspect of the case this site was making for a national broadband initiative for multi-
gigabit symmetrical internet access via fiber and wireless. This site will follow up with some specific
recommendations in regards to using policies for increased competition, the government using the
broadband investment to also buy more openness and rights for consumers [no bandwidth caps, allow other
companies to use the national fiber at low cost etc...] and paying for super-highspeed access via more prizes
instead of paying up front to specific companies.

Economic Development Benefits: 10 Case Studies
Excerpt from the Baller-Herbst Report
http://www.e-nc.org/EconDev_10Studies.asp
In July 2001, Criterion Economics released a Verizon-sponsored study finding that “[b]roadband access to
the Internet in all its forms – ADSL, cable modems, and various wireless services – will bring enormous
benefits to our economy.” 26 The authors calculated that widespread adoption of broadband by 2013 would
result in a net present value of more than $500 billion.
In February 2002, TeleNomic Research published a study concluding that a national broadband network
would result in the addition of 1.2 million permanent jobs, broken down as follows:

166,000 jobs would be created directly in the telecommunications sector
72,000 manufacturing jobs would be generated by the direct purchase of network plant and equipment and
customer premise equipment, and
974,000 indirect jobs would be created if a high-capacity network were built 27
In September 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued a seminal report on broadband demand
in the United States. 28 The DOC reviewed the Criterion Economics and TeleNomic studies cited above as
well as numerous other then-existing studies and concluded that widespread broadband deployment and
adoption was critical to “promoting jobs, productivity, and sustained growth,” to “enabling anywhere,
anytime, student-appropriate learning,” to “transforming health care,” to upgrading the military to cope with
“the global war on terror,” to “securing the home front” by enhancing homeland security, and to “bringing
new possibilities and hope” to disabled persons and senior citizens. The DOC then set forth numerous
actions that all levels of government, business leaders, and innovators and entrepreneurs could take to
stimulate broadband demand.

Notably, after reviewing what it called the “U.S. Supply of Current Generation Broadband (Cable & DSL),” the
DOC cautioned:


It is important to note here that the current generation of broadband technologies (cable and DSL) may prove
woefully insufficient to carry many of the advanced applications driving future demand. Today’s broadband
will be tomorrow’s traffic jam, and the need for speed will persist as new applications and services gobble up
existing bandwidth. 29  



In 2003, Criterion Economics refined its research and found that, over the next 19 years, ubiquitous
adoption of current-generation DSL and CMS would result in a cumulative increase in gross domestic
product (GDP) of $179.7 billion and in 61,000 new jobs a year. Criterion also found that introducing next-
generation fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology at a reasonable pace would increase cumulative GDP to
$440 billion and new jobs to 140,000 a year. 30
In April 2005, Applied Economic Studies published a study focusing on a municipal broadband deployment
in Lake County, Fla. The study concluded that “Lake County has experienced approximately 100% greater
growth in economic activity-a doubling-relative to comparable Florida counties since making its municipal
broadband network generally available to businesses and municipal institutions in the county.” 31

In February 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University published the
results of a study that they had performed for the U.S. Department of Commerce, to measure the impact of
broadband on economic growth. 32 The MIT/CMU team found that “between 1998 and 2002, communities
in which mass-market broadband was available by December 1999 experienced more rapid growth in
employment, the number of businesses overall, and businesses in IT [Information Technology]-intensive
sectors, relative to comparable communities without broadband at that time.” They also found that
broadband’s impact on the number of jobs and business establishments “was particularly large relative to
our expectations.”

In June 2007, a study sponsored by the Brookings Institution found that, for every one percentage point
increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment increases by 0.2-0.3 percent per year. For the
entire U.S. private non-farm economy, the study projected an increase of about 300,000 jobs a year,
assuming that the economy was not already at full employment.  

In November 2007, a study commissioned by AT&T found that increased use of DSL and CMS would directly
result in 14,853 new jobs in the Solano County area of California in the next 10 years. The study also
showed that, with a nearly 4 percent annual percentage point increase in adults using broadband, the state
could see a net cumulative gain of 1.8 million jobs and $132 billion in payroll over the next decade.  

In February 2008, Connected Nation issued a report estimating that if broadband adoption were to increase
an additional 7 percent in every state, the United States would experience aggregate economic benefits of
approximately $134 billion a year. This would include $92 billion from 2.4 million jobs produced or saved;
$662 million in reduced health-care costs; $6.4 billion in savings from reduced driving; $18.2 million in
carbon credits associated with 3.2 billion fewer pounds of carbon dioxide emissions; and $35.2 billion in
the value of saving 3.8 billion hours by accessing broadband from home.  

Most recently, Strategic Network Group concluded, based on a study of the effects of fiber deployments on a
total of 223 businesses in three communities, that


"The real benefits of FTTP (fiber to the premises) are more than about doing the same things faster. The most
significant gains from FTTP occur after 2 years of use once organizations have adopted new business
models to realize new revenue streams and to transform their business operations for cost avoidance. While
the greatest gains are realized when moving from dial-up to FTTP, there continue to be significant gains for
businesses that move from other forms of broadband access."
In addition to these direct benefits, there are economic multiplier effects (increases in GDP, jobs, tax
revenues) that can be calculated. In SNG’s research since 2003, we have found significant increases in
local economic activity attributable to broadband. In fact, the increase in local GDP is more than ten-fold
the value of the investments in broadband infrastructure.  




The difference between the 5-10 Mbps and the 100 Mbps is not simply one of moving data faster. It is, rather,
an economically crucial difference that causes a profound shift in how the medium is used. For example, a
study in Japan of the effects of widespread, near-symmetric 100 Mbps (as opposed to the asymmetric
download-priority model that dominates in the U.S. and elsewhere), found a dramatic increase in the use of
peer-to-peer applications of various types, as well as in the creation of a whole new class of creative “heavy
hitter” users who take advantage of such applications.  In other words, affordable access to high-bandwidth
capacity results in a surge of applications and of both content users and content creators that does not –
and cannot – exist in an asymmetric, low-capacity environment.
There are two important lessons to be gleaned from the experience in Japan. The first is the crucial
importance of robust upstream connections, enabling users to produce and distribute their own content
and applications. The second is that “big” broadband, as opposed to puny broadband at DSL and CMS
speeds, makes not only a quantitative difference, but also a crucial and economically significant qualitative
difference.




100 page pdf analyzing broadband in 2008 for North Carolina

In July 2001, Criterion Economics released a Verizon-sponsored study finding that "[b]roadband access to
the Internet in all its forms - ADSL, cablemodems, and various wireless services - will bring enormous
benefits to our economy." The authors calculated that widespread adoption of broadbandby 2013 would
result in a net present value of more than $500 billion.
In February 2002, TeleNomic Research published a study concluding that a national broadband network
would result in the addition of 1.2 million permanent jobs, broken down as follows:
*166,000 jobs would be created directly in the telecommunications sector
* 72,000 manufacturing jobs would be generated by the direct purchase of network plant and equipment
and customer premise equipment, and
* 974,000 indirect jobs would be created if a high-capacity network were built

In September 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued a seminal report on broadband demand
in the United States.The DOC reviewed the Criterion Economics and TeleNomic studies cited above as well
as numerous other then-existing studies and concluded that widespread broadband deployment and
adoption was critical to "promoting jobs, productivity, and sustained growth," to "enabling anywhere,
anytime, student-appropriate learning," to "transforming health care," to upgrading the military to cope with
"the global war on terror," to "securing the home front" by enhancing homeland security, and to "bringing
new possibilities and hope" to disabled persons and senior citizens. The DOC then set forth numerous
actions that all levels of government, business leaders, and innovators and entrepreneurs could take to
stimulate broadband demand.
Notably, after reviewing what it called the "U.S. Supply of Current Generation Broadband (Cable & DSL)," the
DOC cautioned: It is important to note here that the current generation of broadband technologies (cable
and DSL) may prove woefully insufficient to carry many of the advanced applications driving future demand.
Today's broadband will be tomorrow's traffic jam, and the need for speed will persist as new applications and
services gobble up existing bandwidth.
In 2003, Criterion Economics refined its research and found that, over the next 19 years, ubiquitous
adoption of current-generation DSL and CMS would result in a cumulative increase in gross domestic
product (GDP) of $179.7 billion and in 61,000 new jobs a year.
Criterion also found that introducing next-generation fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology at a reasonable
pace would increase cumulative GDP to $440 billion and new jobs to 140,000 a year.  In April 2005,
Applied Economic Studies published a study focusing on a municipal broadband deployment in Lake
County, Fla. The study concluded that "Lake County has experienced approximately 100% greater growth
in economic activity-a doubling-relative to comparable Florida counties since making its municipal
broadband network generally available to businesses and municipal institutions in the county."
In February 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University published the
results of a study that they had performed for the U.S. Department of Commerce, to measure the impact of
broadband on economic growth. The MIT/CMU team found that "between 1998 and 2002, communities in
which mass-market broadband was available by December 1999 experienced more rapid growth in
employment, the number of businesses overall, and businesses in IT [Information Technology]-intensive
sectors, relative to comparable communities without broadband at that time."
They also found that broadband's impact on the number of jobs and business establishments "was
particularly large relative to our expectations."
In June 2007, a study sponsored by the Brookings Institution found that, for every one percentage point
increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment increases by 0.2-0.3 percent per year. For the
entire U.S. private non-farm economy, the study projected an increase of about 300,000 jobs a year,
assuming that the economy was not already at full employment.
In February 2008, Connected Nation issued a report estimating that if broadband adoption were to increase
an additional 7 percent in every state, the United States would experience aggregate economic
benefits of approximately $134 billion a year. This would include $92 billion from 2.4 million jobs produced
or saved; $662 million in reduced health-care costs; $6.4 billion in savings from reduced
driving; $18.2 million in carbon credits associated with 3.2 billion fewer pounds of carbon dioxide
emissions; and $35.2 billion in the value of saving 3.8 billion hours by accessing broadband from home.
Most recently, Strategic Network Group concluded, based on a study of the effects of fiber deployments on a
total of 223 businesses in three communities, that The real benefits of FTTP (fiber to the premises) are more
than about doing the same things faster. The most significant gains from FTTP occur after 2 years of use
once organizations have adopted new business models to realize new revenue streams and to transform
their business operations for cost avoidance. While the greatest gains are realized when moving from dial-
up to FTTP, there continue to be significant gains for businesses that move from other forms of broadband
access. In addition to these direct benefits, there are economic multiplier effects (increases in GDP, jobs, tax
revenues) that can be calculated. In SNG's research since 2003, we have found significant increases in
local economic activity attributable to broadband. In fact, the increase in local GDP is more than ten-fold
the value of the investments in broadband infrastructure.
The difference between the 5-10 Mbps and the 100 Mbps is not simply one of moving data faster. It is, rather,
an economically crucial difference that causes a profound shift in how the medium is used.
For example, a study in Japan of the effects of widespread, near-symmetric 100 Mbps (as opposed to the
asymmetric download-priority model that dominates in the U.S. and elsewhere), found a dramatic increase
in the use of peer-to-peer applications of various types, as well as in the creation of a whole new class of
creative "heavy hitter" users who take advantage of such applications.
In other words, affordable access to high-bandwidth capacity results in a surge of applications and of both
content users and content creators that does not - and cannot - exist in an asymmetric, low-capacity
environment.
There are two important lessons to be gleaned from the experience in Japan. The first is the crucial
importance of robust upstreamconnections, enabling users to produce and distribute their own content and
applications. The second is that "big" broadband, as opposed to puny broadband at DSL and CMS speeds,
makes not only a quantitative difference, but also a crucial and economically significant qualitative
difference.

So FTTP (fiber to the premises) at least $440Billion. Full Broadband rollout $200 billion. More from Peer to
peer applications from 100 mbps symmetrical capability. 15% productivity boost. 10+X GDP return from
broadband investment. Scaling to Gigabit access could increase GDP by about an extra 3% per year.

Intangible Capital Explained