This report was published at Times.com at June 17, 2011 and was written by Bob Diddlebock. This is a summary and the title is above.
Last year, when Google announced it wanted to build and test-drive a new hyper-speed fiber optic nerwork in a U.S. community, more than 1,000 cities applied. Municipals officials offered everything from tax abatements to free advertising.
Google chose Kansas City, but the competition for Google`s attention underscored an important fact: Cities have come to view high-speed access to the internet as an infrastructure that`s as critical to their future as highways were in the past.
Denver, too, has pushed to boost high-speed access. City officials there say broadband capabilities give them the leverage to pitch companies about relocating parts of their operations to Denver. ¨It has made us much more competitive with other markets, and led to a lot of tech growth.¨ Says economist Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado.
The fact is that tech companies usually attract a highly educated and entrepreneurial workforce, which can lead to new start-ups and more jobs. High-speed internet access could be a first step in attracting those workers.
President Obama has said that boosting internet speeds around the country is important to increasing the U.S. competitiveness. The U.S. at 4 megabits per second, on average, currently ranks 15th in the world.
In order to lure Google, Kansas City officials promised to fast track building permits for the project. Another selling point was that K.C. already has underground conduits that could host miles of high-capacity fiber-optic cable.
Kansas City Mayor Joe Reardon says, ¨broadband is fundamental to the future of our schools, our health-care system, for business of all sizes, and for entrepreneurs.¨
