A new study by Citizens for a Sound Economy says that widespread broadband deployment will create jobs and benefit state economies.

The introduction of broadband holds great economic promise, not just for the companies providing broadband services, but for the businesses and consumers who rely on the service. Two recent studies suggest that full broadband deployment would generate roughly 1.2 million jobs throughout the nation--or more than twice the number of jobs lost in the telecommunications sector. These are estimates of net new job creation.

From State Economies Can Benefit from Broadband Deployment
Referenced Mon Dec 22 2003 09:27:36 GMT-0700

According to the report Utah is pretty far down the road in the job creation category: just 5000 jobs. The report blames fumbled regulatory practices for the barriers to widespread broadband deployment:

While there are many causal factors responsible for the economic downturn and the collapse of the telecommunications sector, federal and state regulatory policies should not be overlooked. Regulators have struggled with the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, with efforts to establish a more competitive market often creating disincentives for the capital expenditures necessary to deploy a broadband network to individual households across the nation.

I believe that we're in a period of confusion. Because more telecom regulations have been based on particular technologies, specifically, circuit switched, copper networks, it gets to be tougher and tougher to see how they apply to new networks and technologies. This leads to considerable uncertainty. The recent FCC hearings are a sign of this.