High speed internet access improves lives and has a positive impact on the economy, education and healthcare, according to recently released research.

“The Economic Impact of Rural Broadband,” a recent report released by the Hudson Institute and commissioned by the Foundation for Rural Service reveals the many economic and social benefits of rural broadband access.

With 20 percent of Americans living in rural communities, it’s crucial to keep these areas up to speed. Luckily, advocates such as NTCA-Rural Broadband Association, are boosting the efforts of independent telecommunications and broadband providers nationwide to deploy high speed services to schools, libraries and more.

Key findings in the report include:

  • Rural broadband companies contributed $24.1 billion to the economies of the states in which they operated in 2015. Of this, $17.2 billion was through their own operations and $6.9 billion was through the follow-on impact of their operations. The total represents the amount added to the Gross Domestic Product by this set of firms.
  • While the industry produces a range of telecommunications services in rural areas, the economic activity accrues both to the rural areas served and to urban areas as well.
  • More of this benefit goes to urban than rural areas. Only $8.2 billion, or 34 percent of the $24.1 billion final economic demand generated by rural telecom companies accrues to rural areas; the other 66 percent or $15.9 billion accrues to the benefit of urban areas.
  • The rural broadband industry supported 69,595 jobs in 2015, both through its own employment and the employment that its purchases of goods and services generated.
  • Jobs supported by economic activity created by rural broadband companies are shared between rural and urban areas. Forty-six percent are in rural areas; 54 percent are in urban areas. A combination of higher wages in the broadband industry and the specialized nature of the inputs used by the industry, inputs that are more likely to be found in urban than rural areas, drives this result.
  • Rural broadband supported over $100 billion in e-commerce in 2015.
  • The largest share was in manufacturing, where a majority of transactions now involve electronic data exchange over broadband networks.
  • Nearly $10 billion involved retail sales; if broadband had the same reach in rural areas as it does in urban areas, sales would have been at least $1 billion higher.

“The report findings are further evidence that investing in rural broadband has far-reaching effects for both urban and rural America, creating efficiencies in health care, education, agriculture, energy, and commerce, and enhancing quality of life of citizens across the country,” said FRS Executive Director Jessica Golden. “The advancement and viability of our rural American communities is not just a rural issue but a national imperative.”

Watch a video about the report at:

​Read the report at:

http://hudson.org/research/12428-the-economic-impact-of-rural-broadband

(StatePoint.net contributed to this report)