Increased US Broadband Adoption Could Create 2.4 Million Jobs

Ward D points out a story about a recent study that predicts significant economic growth through increased broadband adoption in the U.S. The study is based on a program in Kentucky that has, through the increased use of broadband, "saved an average of more than $200 per person per year" on health-care services, and decreased the average amount of time residents spent driving by 100 hours per month. From Computerworld: "The Connected Nation model ... focuses more on broadband adoption and local needs than huge, government-funded programs. Several Kentucky businesses have benefited from the increased access, according to Connected Nation. Geek Squad, the Best Buy subsidiary, moved its headquarters to Bullitt County, Kentucky, in late 2006 because of the broadband availability."

Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[postbigbang]

A few lucky economic development wins doesn't constitute rapid job growth. I'm glad people shop online and glad they save fuel. But so far, no one has shown direct, only indirect benefits..... not job creation (save for nebulous 'tech' jobs) or anything else than infrastructure maintenance positions (truck rollers, moles, linemen, and so forth). It would be nice if there could be an easier quid pro quo data set that motivated communities (and not to get in bed with telcos without titanium strings attached to the deals). Look at the problems with muni-wifi, the failures of WiMAX, and the sheer dominance of the telcos. Community networking is in a sad state, and this study, sadly, doesn't help.

Re:Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[webmaster404]

Think of it this way. Its very hard to run an online business on dial up. The more broadband we have here in the US the faster tech jobs will grow because people can actually use the internet. For example, downloading Linux ISOs, on a decent connection it might take an hour at the most, with dial up that could take days. Also dial-up users are less likely to download programs because a good sized program may take 10 minutes on dial up but take a few seconds on broadband. This is by far good news for Linux people and to people wanting more tech jobs.

Wireless

[simpl3x]

And, I bet that free wireless will create even more! Better broadband is great, but most of our "surfing" isn't really useful, whereas searches on mobile devices likely tend towards needs. As with the iPhone and Google searches, and I can attest to it, making it available makes it happen. Quick, easy, and slow...

How much more gets done with 1gps versus 128k? Not much IMHO.

Increased US Broadband Adoption Could Create

[falconwolf]

2.4 million jobs.

And what jobs are those? TFA doesn't say. Sure some temporary jobs would be created to build the infrastructure and a few more permanent jobs will be created to maintain it but what other jobs will be created? /.'s title is a bad one as TFA is more about money saved not jobs created.

Falcon

"decreased the average amount of time..."

[Ferzerp]

"decreased the average amount of time residents spent driving by 100 hours per month"

Huh? The average resident now drives 3 hours less per day? Is everyone in KY a truck driver or something?

...$200 Billion...nothing delivered...no consequen

[distantbody]

Some might think 'what's done is done, it's in the past, it was done a decade ago'. Surely someone is keeping this issue alive because, even with all the time that has since past, there is still a huge public interest that needs to be served by ripping that money back, by whatever means necessary, to send the message that: 'for all of our belief in contractual agreements, and for all of our corrupt, lazy and intimidated politicians and government; no-one so vastly screws with our hard-earned money and future prosperity and gets away with it, regardless of whether it was committed a year ago, ten years ago, or whether the contract set performance penalties or not' I want to see the looks on the executives and senators faces who, long thinking they had got away with it, all-of-a-sudden get the f**k charged out of them. Someone needs to keep this issue alive.

Opportunity cost

[homer_s]

Whenever some one proposes a great govt. undertaking that will "create jobs"*, ask yourself what the opportunity cost is - in other words, what use would the money have been put to had it not been taken away and invested somewhere else.

*The challenge is not to create jobs, but to create wealth. If the govt.just wants to create jobs, they can hire a million goons to destroy stuff and hire another million people to rebuild stuff - boom, 2 million jobs created.

Re:Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[Jeff DeMaagd]

That's an easy trap to fall into. Non-tech businesses benefit from broadband too.

They don't explain what they mean by broadband

[grandpa-geek]

From their document, this looks like a front for the cable industry and the telcos who are peddling what they call broadband. Their "broadband" is really at dumbed down legacy speeds compared to what other countries in the world are doing.

Real broadband is gigabit speed, bi-directional, to homes and small businesses. It allows every subscriber to become a content provider. The cable industry sees itself as being part of the entertainment industry, and the telcos would like to join the broadband-as-entertainment model. Real broadband scares the entertainment industry because they see it as a challenge to their business model.

The economic impact of real broadband would be immense. I like to analogize the comparison of legacy broadband to real broadband as the difference between animal power and engine power. If one horsepower is a fundamental limit, innovators will try to work out ways of getting two horses to work together. If power comes from engines, innovation goes to a much higher level. Innovators in countries with with real broadband can conceive ideas that American innovators can't even imagine.

The sponsors of this report are pushing legislation. I would urge people to examine the legislation to see how it defines broadband. If it doesn't talk about gigabit to the home, it is part of the trend in which the US is becoming a third world telecommunications country to protect entertainment business models.

Re:Opportunity cost

[homer_s]

If the money to build the new hospital was taken away from a sanitation project that could save more lives, then yes, it is a net loss.

That is a simple economic fact, but I feel it is wasted on you since you are intent on childish name calling. Maybe you should be on reddit/digg with the other kids?

broadband vs. green tech

[heroine]

For all the trillions of dollars pouring into alternative fuels, hybrid cars, & transportation taxes, all it would take to solve most of this problem is willingness to let workers telecommute.

It's like living in a parallel universe where we sit in traffic 10 hours a week & spend half our income getting to work with all these unused internet cables sitting just a few feet away.

Re:Opportunity cost

[shadwstalkr]

If the govt.just wants to create jobs, they can hire a million goons to destroy stuff and hire another million people to rebuild stuff - boom, 2 million jobs created.

Apparently you don't keep up with the news.

Re:"decreased the average amount of time..."

[compro01]

Huh? The average resident now drives 3 hours less per day? Is everyone in KY a truck driver or something?

no, they must just contract their article writing out to the /. editors. the study linked by TFA says the broadband folks tended to drive about 102 fewer miles per month and they somehow came up with "hours". minutes would have been closer.

Re:Increased US Broadband Adoption Could Create

[n6kuy]

> > Increased US Broadband Adoption Could Create 2.4 Million Jobs
> ...in tech support.
... In India.

> There. Fixed that for you.

Still had a bug.

Re:Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[palegray.net]

Where as the reality is, company deploy computer systems and make use of the internet to make productivity savings.

You know, the advent of the assembly line marked a new era of cost savings in manufacturing, but it also opened up a lot of jobs for engineers and other workers. It's the nature of progress; adapt or die. Nobody has an inherent right to a job, but it is everyone's personal responsibility to take steps to make sure their skills stay relevant. If a particular skill becomes obsolete or subject to significantly less demand, the burden lies on the individual to find another way to make himself economically valuable.

Re:Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[DM9290]

Where as the reality is, company deploy computer systems and make use of the internet to make productivity savings.

You know, the advent of the assembly line marked a new era of cost savings in manufacturing, but it also opened up a lot of jobs for engineers and other workers. It's the nature of progress; adapt or die. Nobody has an inherent right to a job, but it is everyone's personal responsibility to take steps to make sure their skills stay relevant. If a particular skill becomes obsolete or subject to significantly less demand, the burden lies on the individual to find another way to make himself economically valuable.

when you say "cost savings" what you mean is "the boss/lord can now throw a bunch of people off his land".

Don't all living things have an inherent right to to take what they need from the environment in order to survive and reproduce?

Imagine if a king, upon discovering a method of "Cost savings" decided to throw his surplus subjects into the ocean? He decries "there is no inherent RIGHT to be my subject and leech off my *MY* kingdom. The burden is on you to make yourself useful to me! Don't come back until you are useful."

As a property owner, you are merely a manager of wealth. there is nothing NATURAL that makes any wealth the exclusive property of a single being to enjoy. All the wealth of the world is naturally commonly shared by all the life of the world.

If you have taken it upon yourself to be "wealthy" then you have a duty to manage that wealth in a way that benefits all. and you have a moral duty for the welfare of your employees. you can tell yourself its ok to just 'let them go free'. But you dictated their level of education while they worked for you, by controlling the amount of free time they have and their work conditions. If you expect them to have skills for future occupations.. you must provide those skills.. otherwise you are a dictator and a tyrant and have no right to complain when the workers revolt and take the means of their survival into their own hands (and perhaps take your head in the bargain).

In general, all employers conspire to minimize the education and marketability of their workers. employers don't want mobile workers because such workers cost the most money. And any skills they posssess that don't go to their job, actually reduce their productivity. The wealthy may enjoy their lavish lifestyles, but it comes with a MORAL DUTY to the rest of mankind. A leader has a duty to his followers. You can't cut them loose in any natural kind of social relationship.

Some of the better monarchs in history understood this. In capitalism we have created a class of petty dictators that want all the benefits of monarchy but none of the responsibilities of leadership.

And then a bunch of wannabe petty dictators who go around blathering about now 'natural' and 'inherent' it all is.