The following blog is cross-posted from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs website.

Even months after Super Storm Sandy, power hadn’t been restored to all residents on the East Coast. That was one of the many events that brought a serious problem to light: Our infrastructure systems — the energy, water and communications networks we rely on and use every day — have not changed, in many ways, since they were originally designed, and they are not able to keep up with the demands of 21st century living. This was the discussion of the second plenary panel during the 2013 Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference on Tuesday, April 16.

As Mike Langford, National President of the Utility Workers Union of America, explained, “Our infrastructure is at the end of its life. That is why our national infrastructure earned a grade of D+… Don’t we deserve an A+ water and energy system?”

Nancy Stoner, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water at the Environmental Protection Agency added, “The good news is that investing in our water infrastructure creates jobs. We owe it to future generations to ensure they have safe drinking water like we have had.”

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, spoke about the importance of using pension funds to fund training programs to support training programs for workers. “We know that if we invest pension funds into infrastructure projects in a prudent, fiducially-sound way, retrofit and upgrade buildings to make them energy efficient, and create those type of jobs and training to allow current workers to upgrade their skills and create a new skill base for new workers, that is a win-win-win.”

Representative Stacey Abrams, Minority Leader of the Georgia House, shared the story of the Atlanta Green Beltway as an example of what can happen when infrastructure projects are done right. This project is re-using 22-miles of historic railroad corridors to connect 45 neighborhoods and provide a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit.

Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of Public Policy for the National Council of La Raza, spoke about the importance of building relationships and non-traditional partnerships in order to get these types of investments done. “We spend a lot of time talking to ourselves. Building relationships and agenda setting collaboratively takes time and energy, so it is easier to talk to ourselves. Building deeper, collaborative and authentic relationships on the local and national level is what is needed to win.”

Langford pushed conference attendees to be talk about the importance of investing in our nation’s infrastructure to those in their home communities. “Every person needs to be an ambassador for how these types of projects need to happen in their own communities. We need community involvement and education so we can get the investments that are good for workers and good for communities.”

The following post is from Stephanie Hernandez, communications intern for the BlueGreen Alliance.

The week of January 9, 2013, Cisco announced plans to offer a new home control and monitoring panel for AT&T’s Digital Life service.

AT&T’s Digital Life is an all-digital fully integrated home security and automation service. Their partnership with Cisco would enable them to equip customers with the ability to control their homes using a smartphone, tablet or pc.

Smart energy management practices and programs, which incorporate the demand response technology that AT&T and Cisco are now providing, can help drastically reduce waste, cut pollution, and lower energy bills. A 2011 report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission notes that the potential peak load reduction from demand response programs is more than 53 GW, and that potential has been increasing year by year.

Joe Chow, vice president and general manager of Connected Home Devices, Cisco, stated “As more and more data and devices become connected, the Internet of Everything makes it possible for consumers to check in on loved ones, pets, and energy consumption on the go”. Internet is easing the ability to check on various things with only your electronic device.

The Digital Life controller will allow users to wirelessly manage devices connecting AT&T software with Cisco Z-Wave radio. Devices include cameras and door locks to moisture-detection sensors and appliance and lighting. AT&T Digital Life has created a simple, easy to use, intuitive user experience with applications being developed for iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Cisco-AT&T partnership is one of many service providers to enter the home security and energy management space. Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable and Comcast have offered similar bundled packages for energy monitoring and management. As more companies offer these kind of services that monitor and manage energy use, this is movement towards more efficient energy use as well as reducing costs of residential energy use. By expanding their services, the possibilities of jobs grow as well. A technology induced movement may lead to economic benefits that are green and revolutionary. 

The following blog is cross-posted from the Communications Workers of America Speed Matters blog.

In September, the UN Broadband Commission released its annual report, The State Of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion For All. The commission takes a global look at broadband in both the developing and developed worlds, and what it found this year is encouraging, but not entirely flattering for the United States.

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development was established in 2010 by UNESCO and he International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to help meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It measured broadband by several parameters and found:

The U.S. continues to lag behind in fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. At number 18, the U.S. trails France, the U.K., South Korea and even Malta.

When it comes to mobile broadband penetration, the U.S. does better, coming in ninth, but still runs behind Japan, Korea, Finland and Singapore. The U.S. posts 65.5 active mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, while Japan registers 93.7.

And worst, in percentage of individuals using the Internet, the U.S. ranks only 23rd at 78 percent, well behind the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Germany and the U.K., as well as Qatar, Andorra and Antigua and Barbados.

As the report says in its introduction, "High-speed affordable broadband connectivity to the Internet is essential to modern society, offering widely recognized economic and social benefits."

The report cites a 2012 study by the Boston Consulting Group which "estimated the size of the Internet economy in the G20 countries at around US$ 2.3 trillion or 4.1% of GDP in 2010; by 2016, this could nearly double to US$4.2 trillion."

Although the U.S. investment in the Internet is huge and broadband is an integral part of the economy and social life, we still fail to include broad swaths of the population in this growth. Speed Matters points out that the digital divide is not simply between the developed and developing world, but in this case also within a rich country. We can do better.

Links:
The State Of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion For All (UN Broadband Commission, Sep. 2012)
Broadband Commission for Digital Development (website)
UN Broadband Commission finds Internet usage lagging behind (telecoms.com, Oct. 2, 2012)

From the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Speed Matters blog.

A report by the national nonprofit Connected Nation, a Speed Matters partner, released today details the key role broadband plays in business performance, and the role broadband will continue to play in the country's economic recovery.

The report notes that U.S. businesses generate $411.4 billion in online sales, but an estimated 1.8 million business remain unconnected to broadband.

Other top-sheet findings from the report include:

• Nearly one in three businesses (32%) earn revenues from online sales. This translates into more than 2.4 million U.S. businesses
• Broadband-connected businesses bring in approximately $300,000 more in annual median revenues than non-broadband adopting businesses

The report also touched on the role of high-speed Internet in the job market, with over 2.5 million businesses using the Internet to advertise jobs or accept applications.

The report is based on a survey of 7,004 business establishments in nine states.

Links:

The 2012 Jobs and Broadband Report (Connected Nation, May 2012)
http://www.connectednation.org/sites/default/files/connected-nation/files/cn_biz_whitepaper2012_final.pdf

Connected Nation Report Details Broadband's Impact on Economy (Connected Nation, May 2, 2012)
http://www.connectednation.org/node/2149

Video: The 2012 Jobs and Broadband Report (Youtube, May 2, 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDjhaCHJiLA

This blog was originally posted on the CWA's Speed Matters blog.

The FCC announced the availability of $300 million to connect up to 400,000 previously unserved homes, businesses, and anchor institutions in rural America. This funding supplements current levels of universal service support.

As part of the FCC's Connect America Fund's first phase, carriers will have 90 days to accept the funding and then two to three years to complete the broadband build-out. The funds are available to carriers based on the number of high-cost rural wire centers they serve lacking broadband access. Allocated support amounts include: Windstream ($60.4 million), CenturyLink ($89.9 million), Frontier ($72 million), Fairpoint ($4.8 million), AT&T ($47.8 million), and Verizon ($19.7 million).

The FCC is also implementing additional reforms to make more effective use of existing universal service funding.

Links:

FCC opens $300M fund to boost rural broadband access (FierceTelecom, Apr.27, 2012)

FCC Launches 'Connect America Fund': Hundreds of Thousands of Americans in Rural Communities Will have Access to High-Speed Internet for the First Time (http://transition.fcc.gov/, Apr. 25, 2012)

This blog post is by Jeff Dygert, Executive Director of Public Policy, AT&T.

Cloud computing, smart cities, mobile-health technologies, distance education -- they’re all the wave of the future that’s here today. They’re all enabled by AT&T’s state-of-the-art communication network, and they’re poised to lead us toward the promise that Earth Day has long offered to us.

Information and communications technology (ICT) surrounds us, even as it improves our daily lives. It rides in the air over nationwide cellular networks and hundreds of thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots. It moves at the speed of light over AT&T’s worldwide optical fiber network. And it resides in data centers around the world that are revolutionizing how we interact with, and benefit from, mountains of data, the likes of which the world has never seen. 

At AT&T we have seen technology’s impact on the way we work and live, as well as in the rapidly changing world around us. For years, businesses have turned to tele-conferencing to speed decision-making and reduce the carbon footprint of business travel. That technology seems almost quaint today, as businesses routinely employ web-enabled, multi-media collaboration tools and increasingly turn to telepresence solutions that allow colleagues from around the world to interact as if they were all in the same conference room. Remote access services using Virtual Private Network technology allow employees to work from home or on the road with the same rich and secure technical environment of the office. 

Gone are the days we have to jump into the car when we need to make a connection. Students take online classes. Farmers monitor weather conditions in distant fields using wireless technologies. Doctors wirelessly monitor their patients’ biometric data and stratify risk criteria while the patients remain in the comfort of their own homes.

It may not be a “Jetsons” world of flying cars — yet — but we are already seeing the benefits of smart cities. We pay for parking over wireless networks, so cities and their citizens no longer need to handle all that spare change. Dumpsters signal when they’re ready to be emptied, avoiding unnecessary runs by garbage trucks. Whole fleets of municipal vehicles are monitored remotely to increase fuel efficiency, ensure safety, reduce the need for costly repairs and make routes more efficient, cutting congestion and carbon output. 

Businesses and consumers minimize their power needs through an ever-growing array of the web-based, smart services that smart meters enable. After decades of sprawling development, we are seeing, even in large cities, the popularity of people living and working within small communities. Soon motorists may receive messages alerting them to the closest parking spaces or the best routes, reducing pollution and easing the stress of traffic jams.

There are challenges ahead, including the spectrum crunch that both policymakers and the communications industry have long discussed. Many environmental solutions involve wireless communications — person-to-person and even machine-to-machine. Already our cars can report breakdowns, and soon our refrigerators will be ordering another gallon of milk for home delivery. This will require ample wireless spectrum to support our sustainable environment.

AT&T is engaged in ongoing research and analysis — in areas like cloud computing, telepresence solutions, network operations, even our real estate portfolio — to better quantify how we can reduce our impact on the environment while driving business value. And we’re positioning our network to help ensure the revolutionary benefits that will accompany the next great technological breakthrough, whether it’s in the field of mobile apps, cloud computing, telemedicine or elsewhere. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Earth Day.