News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Two Tennessee Tech Marketing and Finance professors want to know how expanding broadcast access could impact local economies.
Dr. Ferdinand DiFurio said he and Yolunda Nabors studied what impact broadband could provide for the state.
“We basically studied, tried to measure those impacts in three main areas,” DiFurio said. “We looked at the impact on employment for the state, the impact on what’s called state gross domestic product, and the impact on what’s known as state output.”
DiFurio and Nabors are conducting the economic impact analysis. The Tennessee Rural Communications Cooperative Association sponsored the grant. The group is considering expanding broadband services to areas with limited internet access.
The study is timely considering internet usage has increased from the pandemic. DiFurio said expanding broadband is important for low to mid-income families working from home.
Most of the funds were used towards a sophisticated software named REMI.
“What it does is it customizes the data for the region that we’re looking at,” DiFurio said. “In this case it was for the state, so they do all the customization of the data for the state so we get the most accurate impacts. That of course costs money, and that’s where the majority of the funds went.”
The TRCCA awarded over $63,000 the the two Tech professors in December.
