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Presentation: Modernizing IL Telecom Laws Will Lead to Jobs & Investment
Last week, ITP in partnership with the Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce released results of a study on the impact of telecom policy modernization on job creation and investment in Illinois. Study results showed simple updates to our state’s Telecommunications Act could lead to the creation or retention of more than 105,000 jobs.
Revamping Illinois’ Telecom Policies Will Lead to Jobs and Investment in Illinois
A study conducted by the Discovery Institute on the impact of telecommunications policy on job creation and investment in Illinois found that updates to the Illinois Telecommunications Act are necessary to sustain investment in broadband which, according to one estimate, would create or save 105,622 jobs.
The study cited that with just a 7 percent increase in broadband penetration in Illinois, the state would experience an estimated $6.2 billion in economic impact annually from increased broadband availability, $28 million in average health care savings and more than $4 billion in direct annual income growth.
Results were released March 16, 2010 by the Illinois Technology Partnership (ITP), the Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (ILHCC).
Click here to see full results.
View highlights from our press conference where we released results.
February 17: ITP Press Conference
On February 17, 2010, ITP, several statewide business organizations and technology companies held a press confence in Springfield to call for modernized technology policies. Check out the highlights:
The Internet
We all know what it is, but how does the Internet work anyway? The Internet is a connected series of over 200,000 privately owned networks. It is a network of networks, consisting of millions of business, academic, government, and personal computer networks. The infrastructure for this complex system was built and is maintained by internet service providers (ISPs), which enable e-mail, file transfer, the World Wide Web, and other services to function in an efficient, publicly-accessible environment.
Wireless
Did you ever think you could do things like check your e-mail, watch a movie or read the latest news on your cell phone? Today, thanks to new technologies like wireless broadband, you can and as a result, more and more Illinoisans are “cutting the cord”.
In fact, 16.7 percent of Illinois households have gone exclusively wireless and 15 percent maintain a landline but only take calls on their cell phones, according to 2009 Neilson Co. statistics.
African-Americans are the most active users of mobile internet, and they are adopting use of mobile technology faster than any demographic group in the United States. Some conclude emerging technologies, such as smart phones, will help to achieve digital equality more quickly. Read our blog post for more information.
Americans are also connecting to the internet wirelessly through uses of other new technologies. A recent survey conducted as part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 55% of all Americans connect to the internet not only via cell phone but also from their lap tops and via WiFi or wireless broadband.
Broadband
The term “broadband” refers to the high-speed internet service which allows users to access a large volume of data very quickly. When you refer to cable, DSL, wireless modems, and satellite internet service, you’re talking about different types of broadband service.
While government cost estimates to standardize high-speed Internet rates across the country are between $20 billion to $350 billion, there continues to be significant private investments being made to expand the network, making broadband accessible to more consumers and businesses across the country.
Adoption has increased more than 6-fold between 2001 and 2008 and provided some $32 million in consumer benefits according to a 2009 study released by Internet Innovation Alliance.
According to the June, 2009, Pew Internet & American Life Project:
• Usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009.
• Adoption grew from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009 for households whose annual income is $20,000 or less.
• Adults living in rural communities saw high-speed usage increase from 38% in 2008 to 46% in 2009.
• In 2009, 46% of African Americans had broadband at home.
These investments are critical for job creation and economic growth. Read more about the importance of broadband to business on our blog. According to an article published by the Brookings Institution indirect benefits of broadband access are significant:
Smart young programmers creating new “apps” for smartphones; academic institutions utilizing ever faster broadband to enhance the educational experience; health care personnel being able to deliver world-class medical services to underserved regions domestically and globally; and, businesses being able to order, manufacture, market and distribute their products from anywhere to anywhere. We could not have anticipated many of these developments in 2003; we surely cannot foresee all of the benefits of continuing improvements in broadband services that will occur in the next few years as network companies continue to upgrade their infrastructure.
The ExaFlood
The internet has grown tremendously since its inception – from a mostly text-based medium of e-mail and information, to an explosion of more complex uses, including video, animation, music, and other bandwidth-heavy features. “ExaFlood” stems from the word “exabyte,” (or 1.074 billion gigabytes) and refers to the digital data boom that is pushing the Internet to its limits and has experts forecasting some imminent challenges amidst the excitement.
What’s creating the Exaflood? Namely, online video.
- Online video accounts for 80% of internet traffic.
- Today, 20 typical U.S. households generate as much internet traffic as the entire world did in 1995!
- YouTube alone consumes as much internet capacity, or bandwidth, today as the entire Internet consumed in the year 2000. Users upload 65,000 new videos and download 100 million files each day, a 1,000 percent increase from just one year ago.
- Internet users create ½ an exabyte of new data every day, so much data, that if converted to DVD-quality video, it would take over 50,000 years to watch!)
Interested to learn more about the ExaFlood? Take a look at this video from the Internet Innovation Alliance, appropriately found on YouTube:
“The Impact of Public Policy on the Tech Evolution” Event Wrap Up
The Illinois Technology Partnership hosted a successful event to review the need for policy modernization in Illinois. Panelists discussed rapid changes that have taken place in the technology industry and the need for public policy to keep pace in order to promote innovation, investment, business growth, and job creation.
Special opening remarks were provided by State Senator Michael Bond, Senator for the 31st District of Illinois and Chairman of the Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee.
Our panel of experts included:
Demetria Giannisis, president and CEO of the Chicago Manufacturing Center
Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation
Fred Hoch, president of the Illinois Technology Association
William Lamar, advisory board member for the Alliance for Digital Equality
Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Click here for some highlights from our event: ITP December 9, 2009 Lunch & Learn
Panelists discussed:
- Illinois’ regulatory environment
- Encouraging technology start-ups through seed money and tax-based incentives
- The opportunity to impact the technology industry in 2010 with the re-write of the state’s Telecommunications Act
- Broadband deployment, private sector investment and equal access to technology
ITP: Keeping Up With Tech
ITP hit the streets of downtown Chicago to hear what tech consumers had to say. Here’s what we found, in this first episode of “Tech on the Street”!
