Executive Voices

Downloading Jobs

Deploying broadband in the East is a key economic development strategy

By Steve Parrot

In August, Sprint joined a group of innovative partners to announce the Eastern North Carolina Broadband Initiative, an important public-private partnership that provided immediate benefits to Eastern North Carolina, the state as a whole, and indeed, to points far distant from us.

In addition to hastening the buildout of broadband deployment across Sprint’s service area and boosting network capacity and survivability, the project helps expand and enhance the communications and service networks of research, medical and educational systems and providers throughout the region and North Carolina. It also sets in motion a visionary plan to create a K-20 e-learning project.

The ENCBI partners recognized early on, as public and private entities in other regions obviously are struggling and failing to do, that economic development can best be achieved through public-private partnerships rather than public-private competition. Failed “if we build it, they will come” assumptions in other areas have brought massive debt for the companies and municipalities doing the building, and that debt typically ends up on the backs of taxpayers.

ENCBI’s partners took a more realistic approach: enhance an already strong base, build what else you need to complement and enhance that base, and work to most effectively and efficiently leverage the strengths of the public and private partners. Those ENCBI partners include: Albemarle-Pamlico Economic Development Corp. (APEC), University Health Systems (UHS), MCNC (which operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network), Golden LEAF Inc. and the e-NC Authority (formerly the Rural Internet Access Authority).

Partnership and teamwork among the funding parties enabled us to focus on our areas of expertise, on the greater good, and on the ultimate goal: enhancing an already robust infrastructure by taking it to another level, one that upon completion will rival virtually any other network in the United States.

That achievement does several things. Beyond providing North Carolinians the best communications infrastructure available, it answers questions existing businesses of all sizes might have about the viability of the region or the state as a location site. More importantly, it provides one more point of attraction to North Carolina for companies and entrepreneurs around the nation and the world.

From both the public and private perspectives, it is logical and necessary - it is imperative - that we look at ways to attract new businesses as we provide tools to help grow existing businesses. North Carolina is recognized for the atmosphere it provides in that regard. And as Gov. Mike Easley pointed out in our announcement of ENCBI, “The expansion of broadband capability will help North Carolina maintain its No. 1 ranking for business climate and will be another tool to help grow jobs in the eastern part of out state.”

Expanded DSL connectivity, improved medical care, access to grid computing and e-learning opportunities that will complement existing distance learning applications provide more fuel to North Carolina’s economic development and job creation engine.

Just as importantly, the tools provided by the initiative expand ways to provide training to displaced workers in the manufacturing and textile sectors. Remote, high-speed access to digital content and training programs enable workers to develop required skills without leaving their rural communities.

The e-learning initiative will help link elementary, middle and high schools, community colleges and the university system to ensure that existing and new content and learning programs are universally available.

MCNC’s emphasis on grid computing will maximize the use of existing and expected computing resources by essentially moving them closer to the user. Ongoing public funding in that arena should be targeted to application development and grid connectivity statewide.

The initiative will help our region and the state enhance economic development and business productivity by optimizing use of our existing broadband and computing resources, rather than simply adding to the resource base. Future emphasis can be placed on innovative broadband and e-based applications, rather than simply building more redundant and potentially unnecessary infrastructure.

The ENCBI model can be replicated throughout our state and across the country, and we would encourage that. The partnership is performance-based, in that funds do not flow to the private sector partner until service applications and the infrastructure required by the various contracts have been delivered.

Any good plan includes cost-efficient results for those served by it, and any good partnership includes incentives and rewards for all of the partners. Bringing all of that together required a great deal of hard work and commitment. ENCBI is at its core an economic development plan, and it’s a good one. Thanks to our partners for working with us to make this initiative a success.

Steve Parrot is Sprint state executive for the Carolinas.