Public Power - June 2008 - (Page 65)

global economy,” Baller said. The Brookings Institution, an independent research and public policy institute, estimated that the broadband decline could lead to a potential loss of $1 trillion in economic productivity over the next decade. In addition, more than 1.2 million new jobs could be created with better broadband, said Brookings. “The cutting edge of competition in Japan is now at data speeds between 100 megabits/second (mbps) and 1 gigabits/second (GBps), and that will increase to 10 gigabits by 2010,” Baller said. “The Japanese get 10 times the bandwidth and pay one-quarter of the price for broadband that Americans do.” Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Oslo, Paris, Seoul, Stockholm, Tokyo, Vienna, and many other major cities in Asia and Europe already have—or will soon be getting—access to affordable connectivity at 100 megabits/second (MPS) or more. No major U.S. city will have comparable broadband speeds in the foreseeable future, said Baller. “The United States is going to lose most of its traditional manufacturing jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India. We are also beginning to lose substantial numbers of accounting, engineering, and other service jobs to countries with skilled English-speaking workers who are willing accept much lower wages than their counterparts in the United States,” said Baller. “In today’s global economy, American and other international employers increasingly break their production, distribution, and services into multiple tasks and assign each task to workers in countries that can perform the tasks well at the least possible cost. If we want to retain our standard of living and encourage employers to use more expensive workers in the United States, we have to prepare our work force for high-value, knowledge-based jobs,” Baller said. “This requires strengthening our educational system and providing the critical broadband infrastructure that it will take for our communities and workers to be part of the global network.” The current administration’s broadband policy relies heavily on the market, entrusting competition between the telephone and cable industries to drive broadband deployment. “Unfor- tunately, this hasn’t worked out very well for the United States, as duopolists don’t push each other very hard on price, product development, or service. On the duopolists’ watch, the United States has fallen to somewhere between 12th and 25th in global broadband rankings, depending on the survey consulted, and that’s just not good enough,” Baller said. “We must pull together as a nation and work cooperatively to create the infrastructure that will support our ability to move ahead,” Baller continued. “This is the same challenge the United States faced in building an intercontinental railroad, electrifying the country, establishing a national highway system, and sending a man to the moon. With the public and private sectors working together Transforming the delivery of Power Distribution Insurance… Nielson, Hurtado & Associates is your preferred outlet for electric cooperatives, public utility divisions, municipalities and cogeneration systems. • Property - Primary & Excess • Crime • Boiler & Machinery • Pollution • General Liability • Automobile Liability • Automobile Physical Damage • Umbrella • Workers Compensation • Directors & Ofﬁcers Nielson, Hurtado & Associates Sandy Center, 10011 S. Centennial Parkway, Suite205 Sandy, UT 84070 Phone: 801.352.8393 Fax: 801.352.8397 jhurtado@nhapower.com www.APPAnet.org JUNE 2008 65 http://www.nhapower.com http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - June 2008

Public Power - June 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Finding Common Ground on Climate Change Solutions A Patchwork Approach to Renewable Energy Whose Grid Is It Anyway? The Little Utility That Could Benchmarking Customer Service Can Prairie Hay Power Your Town? Storming the Control Room Investing in the Smart Grid Coming of Age: Superconducting Cables Community Broadband Economic Development Customer Service Human Resources For Governing Boards Safety Parting Shot

Public Power - June 2008

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