Why Municipal Broadband Is Worth The Effort

You’re doubtless familiar with the concept of a smart home. A residence where everything, from complex to mundane, is connected in some way. A dwelling in which connectivity makes life easier and more convenient than ever.

Smart homes are only the beginning, a microcosm of what’s to come. Imagine, if you will, a connected city – a city where traffic accidents are very nearly a thing of the past, where connected hospitals and first responders operate like a well-oiled machine. A city where connectivity, automation, and artificial intelligence work together in tandem to make everyone’s lives better.

It sounds like something that’s purely in the realm of science fiction. And admittedly, in the immediate future, there it might remain. But provided we lay the groundwork now, such connectivity will not only be made possible, but commonplace.

Provided we take the necessary steps to enable public broadband, the lines between science fiction and reality will blur.

We have already detailed the challenges inherent in this. The looming talent shortage in the municipal broadband space. The legislative, logistical, and economic hurdles.

These roadblocks pale in comparison to the benefits public broadband can bring. Laying the foundation for smarter cities is really only the tip of the iceberg. There are much further reaching and more immediate boons, as well.

Improved Economic Development

By investing in public broadband, your city becomes a far more attractive locale for businesses. Not surprisingly, it’s already being considered by many municipalities as a means of jump-starting their local economy and attracting new businesses. New businesses mean new jobs, which mean more money flowing into your community, which means more room for economic growth.

Not only that, with more widely-available Internet, businesses will be better-able to support remote workers. Telecommuting has expanded significantly in recent years, and has the potential for greater job satisfaction, improved productivity, and a more flexible schedule. Finally, it significantly expands the hiring pool for even the most remote business.

Consider the example of Olds, a town located in central Alberta, Canada.

A few years ago, businesses planned to leave in droves because of the town’s poor network connectivity. Seeking a means of preventing a likely economic crash, the town’s leadership initiated a public broadband project in 2012 known as O-Net. Today, residents of Olds have access to Internet speeds approximately 170 times faster than the average Canadian.

The government’s investment quickly renewed the economy, and the town has enjoyed a healthy rate of economic growth ever since.

“Ten years ago, Olds was limited by the performance of its aging telephone lines” reads a post on local publication The Walrus, “The Olds Institute believed that the extra bandwidth that fibre supplies would “future-proof” the community, drawing in businesses and new families…O-Net was created to provide what the big telecoms would not.”

The story of Olds is far from a unique one – there are countless communities throughout North America which have enjoyed significant economic windfalls from municipal broadband, including Chattanooga.

The benefits go beyond job creation and retention of businesses, too. The connectivity enabled by municipal broadband ultimately leads to more efficient cities, resulting in both reduced operational costs and lower taxes. That, in turn, means citizens are more satisfied.

Speaking of satisfaction…

More Resilient Communities

Municipal broadband offers more consumer options to residents also promotes greater civic engagement. Community leaders can more easily engage in digital outreach to residents, while also locating and utilizing local talent in a far more effective way to enrich their city.

Moreover, broadband can lead to greatly-improved accessibility in outlying areas. Traditionally, lower-income households and citizens located in outlying areas lack the same connectivity as their peers who dwell in urban centers or have more lucrative careers. There are multiple reasons behind this rift.

In some cases, it’s simply that ISPs are hesitant to invest time and effort into building infrastructure in remote areas. In others, it’s that they simply cannot afford the connectivity they need. Both situations can be easily-addressed if municipalities construct and manage their own network infrastructure.

More importantly, by handling their own broadband, cities, and townships can become significantly more resilient and less reliant on external organizations. When it comes time to upgrade or update their services in a community, they can make decisions based on what’s best for that particular community. This not only brings reliable, high-quality connectivity to more people than ever before but creates more tightly-knit communities. And that, in turn, creates an enormous potential for growth, as we have already mentioned.

Better Public Services

Through municipal broadband, emergency personnel such as firefighters, police, and paramedics can be equipped with high-speed access to information regardless of where they are within a city or town. That enables a more efficient, more coordinated emergency response. But the benefits do not end there.

With public broadband, institutions such as libraries and government centers can provide free, secure WiFi without having to concern themselves with fiber or carrier contracts.

A Free and Open Internet

If you have spent any time on the web in recent months, you have doubtless heard at least a few echoes of the net neutrality debate. The concept behind net neutrality is simple. Excepting rare cases, all traffic on a network should be treated equally. Advocates argue that maintaining this concept is crucial to maintaining the innovation and openness that is the Internet’s real strength.

Whether or not this is true, a public broadband network, being democratically-owned, is free to set its own rules in that regard.

Preparation For 5G Networks

5G is the next generation of wireless technology, and its adoption is already growing more widespread by the day. The kicker is that it requires a fiber-rich broadband network to function, as noted by Govtech. Given that 5G has the potential to add billions of dollars and millions of jobs to the US economy, the cities and communities that have the necessary infrastructure in place to support it ahead of time will be well-positioned to benefit.

Embracing The Future

Smart cities are the future, and public broadband is a necessary foundation to make them possible. Certainly, there exists a wide range of difficult challenges to making it a reality. But by seeking the right professionals with the right talents, those challenges can be addressed as readily as any other.

That’s where TD Madison comes in. We are a leader in executive recruitment, technical training, and staff augmentation for the broadband industry. This makes us an ideal recruitment partner for any city or town that wishes to proceed with building its own wireless or wired broadband network.

Already, we’re helping cities such as Fort Collins, Colorado move towards a connected future – maybe your city will be next.