This past November, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the National Broadband Expo (www.thebroadbandexpo.com). My topic was "Labor Components of Rural Broadband: the Impact of OnShoring."

The vast majority of broadband service providers I networked with during the Expo conveyed that they are primarily focusing on the hardware and installation of broadband coverage.

In this rush and focus on broadband installation, often overlooked is what I call the Human Element, the opportunities to provide additional complementary services to millions of new and upgraded customers.

Millions? Look at these statistics:

• The United States now ranks 22nd among the world's nations in the density of broadband internet penetration and 72nd in the density of mobile telephony subscriptions.
• There are an estimated 50 million Americans living in rural areas (defined as having a population less than 10,000).
• Rural population areas have a broadband penetration of 75 percent, well below the national average of 89 percent.

Based on these statistics, approximately 10 million people will eventually have access to broadband for the first time. They will be a mix of farmers, workers, freelancers, and business owners. They will need jobs, education, e-commerce sites, web tools, new business support services, etc. All these are human elements, services that people need. If these rural areas were themselves a single state, this market would be the eighth largest state in the USA, behind Ohio. Huge market!

This means new service opportunities are available for Companies to grab such as:

• Economic Opportunity to Work - Depending on which research study you read, anywhere from 250,000 to 2,400,000 jobs will be created. Tele-workers and micro-business development centers of five to 50 people will flourish. Expanded infrastructure support, new virtual management techniques, and new process methodologies will be required.
• Remote Infrastructure - Innovation is best when created from the bottom up. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are being created... from small e-commerce companies started in private homes to large companies, like those teaching English to customers overseas. Many of these companies will fail, but the ones that prosper will create more jobs, strengthen the community by paying more taxes, and generate wealth. They will need professional services provided either by local firms or via the Internet, aka "The Cloud."
• 21st Century Medicine - Remote medicine practices will continue to be refined and expanded. With the growing shortage of family physicians, broadband technologies combined with remote diagnostic equipment are urgently needed.
• Education and Training - Educational industries, training, distance learning, and secondary/advanced degrees are being made more available to rural learners.
• OnShoring - Because their cost of living can be up to half of urban areas, rural Americans are willing to work or provide services at rates far less than their urban brethren. This means rural USA can be competitive with offshoring. Rural onshoring will continue to take outsourcing market share away from both USA urban firms and offshore companies. This is the market niche that Rural America OnShore Outsourcing is successfully attacking. These new broadband users represent an opportunity for thousands of new jobs to be brought back to rural USA. Many of the rural professionals I've hired moved to the "boonies" in order to have a rural lifestyle or be close to family members. Over 90% work from their homes. These talented people bring with them Internet know-how and advanced professional skills. It's a pity, because we have turned down numerous other well-qualified candidates simply because they don't have access to broadband.

Broadband providers should be constantly examining the services they offer their customers to see what additional human element services they can provide. As well, they need to be exploring what partnerships can be created with other vendors in the above suggested service areas.

A tight, focused range of Human Element services complementing your core products/services should be developed to provide a tighter relationship with your customers, generate additional recurring revenue, and differentiate your Company from your competitors.