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."

Comments

Re:Useless statistical models

[superpulpsicle]

Useless is right. Service based economy is the last thing we are. Try going to a restaurant there is no waitor/waitresses most of the time. Try calling tech support the wait time on average 10 minutes if you are lucky. Anything having to do with services doesn't pay well. People are not attracted to building a career off low paying jobs. Nobody wants to do it.

Think of it this way.

[falconwolf]

Its very hard to run an online business on dial up.

Ah but what businesses, and jobs, will be created? TFA says 2.4 million jobs will be created but it does not name 1 job. All it is really about is money saved and not jobs created. Then again the study itself does not say what jobs wll be created.

Falcon

Re:Nice idea, but possibly dubious math

[tomhudson]

The math is more than dubious - its impossible:

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

Do you really believe that people drove 25 hours less every week - 5 hours less every day, Monday to Friday?

From the stupid article:

Using broadband for health-care services has saved an average of more than $200 per person per year in Kentucky, and residents there drove more than 100 fewer hours per month because of transactions done online, according to the study.

If we allow the "more than $200 der person per year", and put 100% of the savings into savings in driving time, we're looking at $200 per year/1200 hours per year = $0.17 per hour. Do you really believe that it costs only 17 cents to drive an hour? Even idling costs more than that!

Maybe they should put the money into real education - math instead of intelligent design.

Re:They don't explain what they mean by broadband

[kamapuaa]

In Japan, very fast broadband is common, but online shopping is much less popular in Japan than in the US, and in fact Japanese people are more likely to use their cell phones to browse the Internet than their broadband connections - mostly for chatting, which could easily be done on a 2400 baud modem. The Japanese software industry sucks, their economy has been in an 18 year rut...

Just saying "the economic impact of real broadband would be immense" isn't enough. What would be the economic impact? You vaguely mention "people becoming content providers", but isn't Youtube a better model than running your own server off broadband for this? Why is Youtube popular in Japan? And why haven't amazing new business models been developed in nations that do have near-universal broadband?

Anyway, generally speaking, broadband is easily and widely available in the US as long as you live in an urban or semi-populated area. Any business model would revolve around them, not people in the countryside or people who just haven't bothered upgrading from AOL, because it's good enough for e-mail.