If You Build It, Will They Come?

"Build it and they will come" turned out not to be true for many application and service providers in the Internet and telecom bubble of the late 1990s. But where it comes to broadband, might it be true?

Service providers might tend to be skeptical, having lived through one bubble, and more importantly, having begun offering 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps services already, with relatively modest take rates. But Blair Levin, executive director of an entity called Gig.U , a coalition of 29 U.S. universities, thinks that is precisely what has to happen.

To some extent, bandwidth and innovation are a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem. Apps don't get built until bandwidth is available, but consumers don't buy more broadband unless there are compelling apps.

Gig.U is meeting with service providers, businesses, nonprofits and any other interested parties to flesh out plans to build it first and then see what happens, at least in college towns.

If you build it, will they come?