As access to broadband increases, more businesses are finding the service essential to stay competitive. Accordingly, the number of businesses located in areas with at least basic broadband services have increased over the past year, according to a report from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA).
The report, titled "Broadband Availability in the Workplace," found that nearly all jobs in the United States are located in areas with service advertising a download speed of at least 3 megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload speed of at least 768 kilobits per second (Kbps).
Data from the NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI) and the Census Bureau also showed that between 2011 and 2012 the number of businesses with access to high speed Internet (download speed of at least 50 Mbps) without having to relocate their offices increased from 56 percent to 75 percent.
Urban areas have greater access to high-speed broadband than rural areas, which is why the report found that 95 percent of information and information technology jobs are located in urban areas, compared to about 90 percent of all jobs. In the information sector, which accounted for 2.3 percent of jobs in 2010, 83 percent have access to high-speed Internet.
Even businesses in rural areas, which tend to be manufacturing jobs, are finding that they have greater access to broadband. As of 2012, 69 percent of manufacturing jobs had access to high-speed Internet, compared to 49 percent in 2011.
In what the report termed "very rural areas," access to high-speed Internet grew from 18 percent in 2011 to 33 percent in 2012. In "exurbs," high-speed Internet access grew from 36 percent in 2011 to 53 percent in 2012.
