Perhaps the most frequently asked question we receive is, "How will broadband help our local economy?"
The answer is, "...in ways you can't even imagine."
Broadband and the expansion of connectivity via both fiber and wireless is creating entirely new businesses and jobs that simply don't appear in the strategic plans of most economic development agencies.
A case in point is Trism, which is a $5 game for the iPhone. Trism's popularity has netted the single developer $250,000 in revenue in just two months. He is now seeking investment capital and is making plans to hire new workers and to expand substantially.
What enabled this? New technology in the form of the iPhone, sophisticated new software written by Apple to deliver software like Trism cheaply over the network, and the network itself.
I have not been able to verify this, but I'm willing to bet that Trism was developed at home, and that that home has a broadband connection.
eBay has said that it believes more than 500,000 people in U.S. make a full time living from buying and selling on the auction site. That's a whole industry, and virtually of those jobs represent home-based workers. The economy is changing, and new jobs and businesses are emerging wherever affordable high speed broadband is available.