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utilize that technology to grow and develop local economies. According to a variety of research available,we already see the impact of broadband on Minnesota business. The 2012 Connect Minnesota Business Survey6 included the following findings related to the economic impact of broadband on Minnesota businesses: • Approximately 44,000 Minnesota businesses allow their employees to telework, reducing the cost of office space and the number of miles that employees commute for work; • 73 percent of all Minnesota businesses subscribe to broadband, with approximately 40,000 Minnesota business establishments not using broadband; • Across Minnesota, businesses that subscribe to broadband report median annual revenues that are$200,000 higher than businesses that do not use broadband. In addition, Minnesota businesses that subscribe to broadband and maintain a website report median annual revenues that are $400,000 higher than businesses that do not use broadband at all. Minnesota's rural economy is being directly impacted by broadband availability, adoption, and use. The 2012 Minnesota Internet Survey released by the Center for Rural Policy and Development finds that in 2012, 27.4 percent of individuals and/or businesses sold goods or services(or advertised) online; up from 14.3 percent in 2010. In fact,the percentage of rural Minnesota Telework Moving Employment in Fergus individuals and businesses utilizing broadband for Falls Forward selling/advertising is higher than in the Metro,where 24.3 percent engaged in those activities. Broadband also Forward Fergus Falls is a coalition of leaders in allows rural Minnesotans the ability to access Fergus Fall that have set out to accomplish employment opportunities that previously may have been Destiny Drivers" to improve the vitality of the unavailable in their communities. Through telework(see local economy. One of those drivers was to below), rural Minnesotans can work for organizations not market Fergus Falls as a telecommuting-ready located in their geographical region. Connect Minnesota community, which gave rise to the Telework `.. research indicates that about 16 percent of rural Initiative. This multi pronged effort strives to Minnesotans are engaged in some type of telework employment. improve broadband access; create a telework hotel to incubate local small businesses and serve as a remote worksite; promote telework to The Telework Example local workers; and market Fergus Fall nationally as a location to find good. reliable teleworkers. The ability to foster a telework economy is a broadband Forward Fergus Falls estimates the economic benefit that has numerous economic impacts.According impact of the telework hotel at $400.000 - to Connect Minnesota's 2011 Residential Technology $450,000 in payroll. The estimate for telework Assessment, 22 percent of Minnesota adults who are jobs in the area is currently 350 employed by employed full-time or part-time say that they work from two major Fortune 500 companies and growing. home, or telework. This means approximately 570,000 Minnesota adults work from home using the Internet For more info - http:/wp.me/p3if7-1 Ez - more instead of commuting to a typical workplace during updated http://wp.me/p3if7-1Td normal business hours. Each teleworker saves roughly $343.16 a year on average on car maintenance and prevents 1,411 pounds of CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere.'Across the state,this equals nearly$196 http://www.connectmn.oro/sites/default/files/connected-nation/Minnesota/files/mn bb business final.pdf 7 Based on 80 work days during the year,24.2 miles round trip commute,with an average automobile operating costs of 17.74 cents per mile http://www.commutesmart.info/download/AAA DrivinQCosts2011.pdf), and an average automobile efficiency of 26.6 mpg(http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004903.html)producing 19.41bs. of CO2 emissions per gallon of fuel consumed(http://www.epa.qov/climatechange/ohgemissionsfindividual.html). 6