Facing our Nation's Challenges: What Role Will Broadband Play?

The upcoming inauguration of our nation's 44th President is an opportunity to take stock of our nation's challenges.  The work ahead is significant and the priorities are clear: renewing our economy and advancing health care and education rank among the top areas in need of change.  But what role can broadband play in making a critical difference that aids policy makers' ambitious agendas?

This week, USTelecom's new Broadband Now video takes a look at the challenges facing our country, and how broadband can help speed progress on an array of urgent issues.  Like the roads and bridges of the last century, broadband is essential modern infrastructure for our nation, and investing in this communications backbone is crucial to fueling our economy and unleashing a myriad of other positive benefits.  Fortunately, the nation's nearly 1,400 broadband providers invested more than $60 billion in communications infrastructure last year alone; this private investment is real economic stimulus that delivers innovation and jobs.

In fact, the broadband/IT sector created half of all new jobs in the U.S. last year -- jobs that pay, on average, 42% higher than manufacturing positions.  Broadband and IT investment has also driven 1/3 of our nation's productivity growth in recent years, and could add $200 billion annually to the GDP.  This broadband-driven stimulus is promising, and will continue to be a positive source of economic renewal.

How can broadband help healthcare, education and energy conservation?  Thanks to broadband-enabled advances that improve patient care and reduce skyrocketing costs, broadband could save America's seniors $800 billion in health care costs over the next 25 years.  With the price tag on a four-year degree at a public university exceeding $50,000, online courses and degrees can help keep college accessible to all Americans.  And broadband is not only making telecommuting opportunities more prevalent, this workplace shift can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion tons over 10 years -- the equivalent to 11% of annual U.S. oil imports.

The promise of broadband is tremendous and our nation's challenges are substantial.  We look forward to working with our new President and Congress to put broadband to work for our nation.