National Broadband Plan Workshop on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Investment

National Broadband Plan Workshop (Economic Growth, Job Creation and Investment)

See the webcast of this workshop

Wordle created from this workshop's transcript:

Federal Communications Commission
Room TW-C305 (Commission Meeting Room)
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
August 26, 2009
9:30am-12:00pm

Contact:
Nick Maynard
Nicholas.Maynard@fcc.gov
(202) 418-2047
http://broadband.gov/ws_economy.html

The goal of this workshop is to evaluate the potential effects of increased broadband penetration and speed on U.S. productivity growth, economic growth, and employment. In addition to examining the potential effects of broadband on the macro-economy, the workshop will also examine studies that address how broadband is likely to affect specific sectors of the economy, including specific industries and geographic areas. In this regard, the workshop will consider the potential effects of broadband on capital investment, employment and innovation within particular sectors. The workshop will also consider how these sector-specific effects will affect the larger economy.

The workshop will also consider the likely benefits of broadband to consumers, particularly those in rural areas, such as providing greater access to consumer information and services, expanded educational and job training opportunities, and improved access to healthcare, via telemedicine - each of which will be explored in more detail in other workshops. Finally, the workshop will consider how these studies of the impact of broadband on economic growth, employment and investment can inform the design of the national broadband plan.

FCC Panelists:

• Donald K. Stockdale, Jr., Deputy Chief and Bureau Chief Economist, Wireline Competition Bureau
• Jonathan D. Levy, Deputy Chief Economist, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis

Panel: Economic Growth, Job Creation, Private Investment

• James E. Prieger, Associate Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University (see prepared presentation)
• Brent Goldfarb, Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland (see prepared presentation)
• Ralph B. Everett, President & CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (see prepared presentation)
• Chris Forman, Associate Professor & the Robert and Stevie Schmidt Term Professor of IT Management, College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology (see prepared presentation)
• Tom Wheeler, Managing Director, Core Capital Partners (see prepared presentation)
• Ryan C. McDevitt, Ph.D. candidate in economics, Northwestern University (see prepared presentation)

The following are some of the preliminary topics that will be covered at this workshop. The FCC is inviting suggestions.

• Approaches for determining the macroeconomic effects of increased broadband penetration on US productivity, economic growth, and employment
• Approaches for examining the sector-specific effects of increased broadband penetration on capital investment, sector employment, and innovation.
• Limitations of these broadband analyses
• Adapting these methodologies to the specific needs of national broadband plan
• Capital investment patterns
• Venture capital patterns
• Projected investment patterns

Here's a look at what some are already telling the FCC about broadband and economic growth...

Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance - ITTA
ITTA supports a National Broadband Plan that will facilitate the establishment and continued evolution of networks which enable maximum capacity, reliability, security, and reach. The support should be technology neutral and support maximum online functionality for consumers, with online functionality available in urban areas serving as the benchmark for successful rural deployment. The Commission should enter the marketplace only where normal economic forces are incapable of supporting deployment and subscription, and should not undertake any actions that would have the effect of discouraging private investment in broadband. Together, these guiding principles should result ultimately in greater broadband deployment and consequent consumer benefits across the Nation.

Windstream
Any federal funding for broadband should address issues that the market clearly cannot resolve on its own. With respect to broadband access, policymakers should focus public programs on enabling expansion of broadband to areas that lack networks capable of providing individual households access to core broadband applications, such as remote conferencing, online banking, and distance education. A subset of consumers has been unable to benefit from substantial private investment in broadband, because there is no rational economic case for deploying high-speed networks to consumers in very high-cost, low density areas. In response, the government should provide one-time-only grants to deploy broadband to households lacking access to networks capable of supporting core broadband applications. Ideally this initiative would receive immediate support from broadband funding made available pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("Recovery Act").

... and may we suggest
Economic Development and Job Creation from Benton's Action Plan for America