Pierce County must invest in broadband sooner, not later. Innovation depends on it
Promoting greater Internet access is the infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. Technology demands on our educational system during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal just how critical fiber is and how deficient the current system is.
An audit commissioned by Pierce County showed that in many areas internet speeds are about a third of what service providers said they would deliver, meaning consumers are getting much less than they’re paying for, highlighting one failure of public infrastructure.
It is not inexpensive to ensure that every American has the connectivity required to thrive, but it is a smart investment nonetheless.
Fiber provides a much faster internet connection as it delivers information in the form of light instead of electricity, with less high-traffic shutdowns. This will help level the playing field for many students in their educational pursuits since it offers much faster speeds than traditional technologies like DSL and cable.
Fiber can position local communities for tomorrow’s jobs and economic growth. Promoting access to it must become a major public policy issue for Pierce County.
Fiber, like electricity, has very high upfront costs, with high barriers to entry. However, just as electricity transformed society by facilitating growth in areas such as transportation, heating and cooling, fiber can provide significant benefits. But its use will require sustained long-term vision and investment.
There is no easy way to measure the full impact of broadband access on the economy, but this is exactly the sort of investment Pierce County should make in a time of crisis. Our internet is a utility, and we shouldn’t be limited to the functional monopoly of Comcast.
Broadband helps to bring about welfare improvements. It enables more flexible employment practices, such as work hours and locations, which contribute to easing the congestion and pollution in large cities.
This is something we are now witnessing, as people who can work from home are doing so to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Pierce County hired a consulting firm in 2018 to conduct an audit to assess the country’s broadband infrastructure and identify how to expand it. The research concluded that internet service providers have failed to address gaps in the market as the economics don’t make sense to invest in more rural areas.
The County Council in July 2019 passed a resolution that declared broadband to be essential infrastructure. However, the county isn’t scheduled to have a plan in place until the end of 2021. It should not have taken this long to make broadband infrastructure a policy priority when the people needed it the most during COVID-19.
According to the University of Munich, “a 10% increase in broadband penetration raises per-capita GDP growth by 0.9 to 1.5 percentage points.” The World Bank has estimated that increasing broadband access by about 10% can lead to an increase in per capita GDP of $13,036.
In considering this idea, it is worth closely looking at a case study of how fiber can help transform a community. Over the last two decades, Chattanooga, Tennessee faced a steep decline as manufacturing jobs moved elsewhere. But by 2010, the city had widely deployed its fiber-optic technology, even as the downtown area was filled with empty factory buildings.
By 2016, many of those vacant buildings had refilled with tech startups. Chattanooga has established itself as a center for innovation — and an encouraging example for Pierce County.
At present, Chattanooga has one of the best, but also one of the least expensive, high speed internet services in the country and is touted as having been saved by the internet. The city government built high-speed, low-cost internet services, making it the first US city with a citywide gigabit-per-second fiber network.
It is important to ensure that everyone in Pierce County – wherever they live and whatever their circumstances – has access to the benefits of broadband.
This is not just about social communication; it is about leveraging the power of broadband to make Pierce County a better place to live and work, promote greater access to the internet and generate local innovation.
David Kirichenko is a Tacoma resident who works in the tech sector for Amazon and is a global shaper with the World Economic Forum. He helped found RAIN Incubator, a biotechnology nonprofit dedicated to training talent, creating jobs and attracting companies to the South Sound.
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 12:00 PM.