Study by Crandall, Jackson and Singer Examines the Effects of Widespread Broadband Adoption on the U.S. Economy

September 20, 2003

[Excerpted from PRNewswire] As many as 1.2 million new jobs could result over the next decade from widespread adoption of existing and advanced broadband technologies, according to a study released today by the New Millennium Research Council. The new report from Criterion Economics L.L.C. concludes that the more than 250,000 telecommunications service and equipment sector jobs lost between 2000-2003 could be restored inside of five years.

Criterion Economics Senior Vice President Hal Singer said: "This study documents quantitatively what many others have only hinted at qualitatively. The 1.2 million jobs reflect the economy-wide stimulus that results from telephone and cable industries competing to roll out DSL and cable modem service, and gradually to roll out advanced broadband service to residential and small business customers, assuming they were constrained only by consumer demand and underlying costs."

The new Criterion Economics L.L.C. study shows that the new investments initially would focus on today's broadband technologies. Before accounting for the effect of more advanced access technologies, the authors estimate that capital expenditure on today's broadband technologies will reach $63.6 billion by 2021 and create a cumulative increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of $179.7 billion.

Criterion Economics Chairman Robert Crandall noted: "Unleashing the full potential of broadband communications could generate $300 billion per year in consumer surplus. As we found in our earlier study, accelerating the adoption rate of current generation broadband technologies could increase the present discounted value of consumer benefits by as much as $500 billion.

According to the study, wider availability of broadband would result in large benefits for the retailing, transportation, home entertainment, and health care sectors. In addition, the computer industry would experience a surge in demand because consumers would acquire new PCs with more random access memory, faster bus speeds, better sound, and much higher capacity hard drives to take full advantage of advanced broadband services.

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