Full Deployment of Rural Wireless Broadband will Create and/or Retain 117,000 Jobs

A study by Dr. Raul Katz, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School, on the economic impact that full deployment of wireless broadband on rural America.

Based on the premise that extending roaming obligations to data services and requiring interoperability among all carriers operating in the 700 MHz spectrum band will enable investment in wireless broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, Katz’s study shows that this investment will result in the creation and/or retention of 117,000 jobs in the nineteen states that have the lowest broadband availability and penetration in the United States. Dr. Katz said, “Rural carriers face two significant obstacles in terms of investing in broadband services in rural areas: 1) interoperability and data roaming challenges and 2) a large portion of the public funds dedicated to broadband deployment are being assigned to fiber optics infrastructure. As shown in the study, the opportunity cost of not allowing smaller, rural and regional carriers to roam onto the national carriers’ networks or interoperate in the 700 MHz band is significant. If Congress and the FCC were to advance these policy changes, accessibility to service would have a major economic impact, including creating or saving 116,862 jobs between 2011 and 2014 in the nineteen states with lowest broadband coverage.”