Economic Feasibility Assessment for Your Community

Any community considering taking its broadband future into its own hands needs to understand and quantify the financial benefits such an investment would require – and if cost savings alone actually help a community pay for a network.

SNG’s Economic Feasibility Assessment provides analysis and insights into the cost benefits as well as the flow-through economic impacts from enhanced business growth enabled by broadband. Municipalities that will benefit from the Economic Feasibility Assessment will be those that;

  1. Recognize that their current state of broadband quality, availability, or affordability is not meeting their needs.
  2. Understand that improving the current state of broadband is essential to the continued well-being and economic growth of their community.
  3. Are ready to take action and ownership of their broadband future, including the possibility of building municipal broadband infrastructure.

Specifically, a Economic Feasibility Assessment will include:

  1. Quantify local broadband benefits* (immediate and long term) based on local broadband demand ( active, latent, and potential) to make an economic case for broadband investments. This includes:
    • Cost reduction financing – how existing budgets (municipal, county, regional, school district, etc.) can be restructured to finance better broadband.
    • Local economic growth through broadband – local economic impacts that make a case for public investment in broadband including… 1) a solidified and increased local GDP and tax base; 3) new higher paying jobs; and 3) household subscription cost savings – money that can be redirected into the local economy
  1. Assessment of the economic return on investment for investing in broadband using the quantified immediate and potential benefits to the community and whether the community benefits outweigh expected network costs.

*Impacts measured by SNG’s Economic Feasibility Assessment include broadband as a location criteria as well as better brroadbans as a driver of business growth and retention. 

You can see how the Economic Feasibility Assessment works with our Ammon, Idaho report.