Arizona Telecommunications & Information Council (ATIC) Multitenant Building Telecommunications Access Study PREVIOUS CONTENTS APPENDIX 4
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Arizona Telemedicine ProgramAppendix 4: Submitted Position Statements
Arizona Department of Commerce (DOC)
Telecommunications Access and Economic Development
SUMMARY: The expansion of the high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure in Arizona will aid the economic development of our state.
Insufficient telecommunications infrastructure, and the maps showing its existence, can force companies to locate elsewhere. Starting in 1998, businesses considering expansion or relocation into Arizona began to include "broadband telecommunications access" as an additional factor used in the determination of their new facility's location.
Many such companies routinely ask Arizona Department of Commerce Business Development Representatives for maps showing the location of fiber optics or US West central offices. Available land or buildings in Arizona offering access to sufficient telecommunications bandwidth then compete with sites in other states and regions. Insufficient access to telecommunications bandwidth by a site meeting all other necessary criteria can then cut that Arizona site from further consideration by the expanding or relocating company.
Though some of the bandwidth-dependent companies are call centers, the recent trend is increasingly software and Internet companies, as well as defense contractors. A large number of "dot coms" have chosen to locate in either the Scottsdale Airpark, Kierland (Phoenix), or downtown Phoenix due to the presence of fiber in the ground. There has also been an increase in requests for a choice of telecommunications providers. The more telecommunications choices available to these companies, the happier they are not only choices between different providers in different locations, but a choice of providers at the same building. We can safely say that having more buildings in Arizona, that offer a choice of telecommunications providers to their tenants, the more attractive Arizona is to such companies. Having a large number of such buildings in Arizona can only benefit our economic development efforts to increase the number of high technology jobs, and specifically information technology jobs, in Arizona.
Submitted by
Brad Trittle, Manager High Technology Business Development (E-mail: bradt@azcommerce.com)
and Sandra Watson, Director of Business Development (E-mail: sandraw@azcommerce.com)Arizona Department of Commerce (DOC) (http://www.commerce.state.az.us/)
Multitenant Building Telecommunications Access Study PREVIOUS CONTENTS APPENDIX 4
returnNEXT Submitted Position Statements:
Arizona Telemedicine Program