Study: full wireless broadband deployment could save or create more than 100,000 jobs

If broadband wireless were “fully deployed” in the 19 states that currently have the lowest broadband deployment rates, 38,500 new jobs could be created and an additional 78,500 jobs—largely in rural communities--could be saved, according to a new report from a respected telecom economist.

“The saved phenomenon is very important,” said report author Raul Katz, who is president of Telecom Advisory Services as well as an adjunct professor of finance and economics at Columbia University Business School. Katz made his remarks yesterday to attendees at a breakfast sponsored by the Rural Cellular Association, which commissioned the research.

Katz noted, for example, that broadband can help small retailers in rural communities reach larger markets and obtain better prices, enabling them to better compete against major retailers such as Walmart or Barnes & Noble. By helping small retailers survive, broadband helps save jobs that would otherwise be eliminated, Katz said.

Deep dive into three states
The new report, titled “Economic Impact of Wireless Broadband in Rural America,” examined the impact that broadband has had on job creation and retention in three states—Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Based on those findings, researchers projected the impact that full deployment of broadband wireless could have on the 19 states with the lowest broadband deployment rates.

In estimating the impact that broadband had on the three states studied, Katz said researchers did not use theory but instead based their findings on “the historical impact that broadband has had” in these areas.

Roaming and interoperability are key
The RCA/ Telecom Advisory Services report comes with an important footnote, however. The results are based on the premise that broadband wireless will be deployed using 700 MHz spectrum, that all 700 MHz networks will be interoperable, and that support for data roaming will be mandatory. The RCA has been pushing for those policy objectives, but as of now data roaming is not mandatory and device manufacturers are not building products that operate in all 700 MHz spectrum bands.

“Roaming is very important,” said Katz. Without it, he said, we would see an “erosion of the potential network effects” and this “would act as a barrier to entry” into the 700 MHz market.