03/24/11
Good Morning
Madam Chair, Members of the Committee:
My name is Robert Van Geons, and I am the Economic Development Director for RowanWorks, which serves Rowan County and our 10 municipalities, including Salisbury.
Our mission is to is to help grow local business and to attract new private sector job creation for our citizens.
I wish that each of you could see the positive and impressive responses I have received from the technology driven companies I have spoken to about our fiber to the home project.
Since our network went live, we have started conversations with international companies, large and small.
These companies are the generators of new innovation.
They are interested in Salisbury not for its low organized labor rate, or because of a potential tax incentive, these companies are fascinated by the volume, flexibility and potential of the infrastructure we have deployed.
The bill before you, in its current form, hurts our community and our citizens.
As written, it would handcuff our potential, eliminating our ability to uniquely partner with companies, stopping us from serving many of our best industrial sites and parks, which are adjacent to the City of Salisbury.
In actuality, for some companies, we would likely not be their primary data provider.
What we can offer them is so unique….
Fast as light connections to offsite backup and control facilities,
Opportunities to design and securely test tomorrow’s products, the one’s that will positively change our lives.
It allows our very small and entrepreneurial companies, to complete globally.
We can provide a testing ground for new multi-media platforms and communication technologies.
Importantly, Fibrant allows our residents to confidently telecommute or to work with the largest companies in the world, without being at a data disadvantage.
What we, and a handful of other communities have done, differentiates us from other communities our size in North Carolina and across Southeast.
The possibilities to develop innovative public-private partnerships are incredible
We asked, and no one would commit to bringing the same advanced broadband services that are currently being installed in other communities.
Private sector providers are understandably focused on larger markets where they can maximize a profitable return.
But, with something as critical as informational access to the world, how long must our citizens do without?
This is not about competition. Let me be clear, there is no other provider in our community that offers anything remotely comparable to what we have done.
We have an entry level product, with upload speeds - pushing your ideas and data out to the world - 5 X faster than anything available to any home in our community. And, we serve every home, with no neighborhoods passed over.
There is no other similar service option available to the average citizen.
Around the world, countries are providing this same infrastructure to spur economic development.
Citizens in other cities in North Carolina and around the Country are being offered this advantage right now.
Please don’t make our community compete with a Data-deficit.
Let us provide this to our citizens, let us leverage this investment to create jobs.
I ask that you support the amendment presented by our Representative, Harry Warren, which would exempt the communities that have already made their investments prior to these new regulations.
Please keep this resource available to our citizens.
Thank you for your time, and I am available now or in the future to answer any questions you may have.