Ball State develops $28 billion plan to create up to 200,000 jobs

By J.K. Wall, The IBJ

jwall@ibj.com

The Digital Policy Institute at Ball State University has drawn up a blueprint to create as many as 200,000 jobs nationwide by March.

How? By spending $28 billion to construct wireless broadband access in rural areas. Ball State calls for distributing the money to small, rural telephone companies as the fastest way to get Americans working on the project.

"Our $28 billion plan could effectively and immediately help bail out our struggling economy as well as cement Ball State and Indiana's reputation as leaders in emerging media," said Robert Yadon, a senior research fellow at Ball State's Digital Policy Institute.

Rural broadband as an economic development idea is nothing new. But with President-elect Barack Obama pushing for hundreds of billions in fiscal stimulus, nearly everyone is eager to tell him how to spend it.

Not surprisingly, Ball State's plan won the endorsement of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, which is lobbying for the plan in Washington.

If the plan is adopted, Yadon predicts that demand for new fiber optics and equipment would jump immediately, boosting manufacturing. Phone companies would need construction workers to build out the new fiber networks. Also, more computer-engineering professionals would be needed to launch and maintain the system, Yadon said.