When it comes to economic development, an area without adequate infrastructure has no chance.
That's been the case for years. A great many industries moved to North Carolina to take advantage of our good roads and plentiful supply of clean, fresh water. Today, communities with inadequate water and sewer facilities are not allowed to welcome new businesses.
A new piece of infrastructure now joins the list of roads, ports, water, sewer, schools and energy lines. The Internet has become so ingrained in 21st-century business that an area without high-speed Internet will not only suffer from a lack of new employers moving in, it may lose its existing business.
The Golden LEAF Foundation has just awarded $24 million to MCNC of Research Triangle Park to bring high-speed Internet access to 69 counties, 67 of which do not have it. This is exactly the kind of economic-development grant that legislators had in mind a decade or so ago when they created the foundation.
Golden LEAF was born out of the national tobacco settlement. North Carolina decided that part of its annual payment would go the redevelopment of communities that would be hurt by higher tobacco taxes, the settlement and the resultant drop in cigarette sales.
There's another $78 million of federal government -- and some state -- money up for grabs, too. When all funding sources are combined, state leaders hope to build 1,448 miles of broadband fiber lines at a total cost of $111 million.
A strong argument can be made that high-speed Internet lines should be built by private enterprise. But it is so only in areas where private business can do so and expect to make a profit. In rural North Carolina, the investment might take years for a private developer to recapture. It's not likely any private company is going to build those rural lines in the near future.
With high-speed Internet available, small communities can let their economic advantages go to work in recruiting. For example, Internet sales operations -- from small used-book outlets to major online retailers -- depend on high-speed Internet. Often, they'll head to rural sites because costs are lower and location is not an issue, as long as the company can be reached via the Internet.
High-speed Internet is also essential to companies for teleconferencing and for moving large data files. Increasingly, it is essential for medical treatment.
Without high-speed service, rural North Carolina will shrivel. With it, new development ideas abound. This is an excellent use of the Golden LEAF money.
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