Currently, more than half of homes and businesses in the U.S. lack access to fiber. Filling the gap between those who have access and those who don’t would result in tremendous positive economic impact, according to a new report from the Fiber Broadband Association and The Brattle Group, commissioned by Frontier Communications.
Based on the research, the report authors said that deploying fiber to the 56 million households that currently don’t have access to it could generate at least $3.24 trillion in net present value (NPV) in incremental economic impact.
Housing values would benefit, with fiber increasing housing values as much as $1.64 trillion (in NPV terms), with the average household value rising 14% to 17% depending on non-urban versus urban areas, an average increase in value of $27,000 to $41,000 per house per year.
Non-urban areas would benefit the most, with the positive economic impact being five times greater than in urban areas due to the greater number of unserved households in non-urban areas. The report predicts fiber accessibility would produce a $1.4 trillion total increase in home values for non-urban areas and $242 billion total increase for urban areas.
Additionally, providing fiber to all locations without broadband access could lead to a one-time income increase up to $1.6 billion in NPV, coming primarily from non-urban areas. These households could experience an increase in their average income by $1,450 in a year.
National employment would benefit as well, the report found, with fiber deployment having the potential to add up to 380,000 new U.S. jobs.
“Fiber deployment also has a significant impact on remote work, environmental benefits, and is best equipped to handle the increased connectivity needs in a 5G world and beyond. In addition, it improves educational outcomes, reduces health costs (thereby increasing health savings), and accelerates technology adoption,” according to the report.
States are moving ahead with broadband expansion, using money from BEAD and other programs. Earlier this week, Louisiana became the first state to announce BEAD awardees.
