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Cable Broadband Market Provide Small Business Tools
HISPANIC PR WIRE --A new study says America’s small businesses would benefit greatly if the cable television market was opened to competition and providers began marketing services to this sector, which is often described as the nation’s economic engine.
“Small business owners say they have never been approached by traditional cable companies as a customer base even though the business applications of broadband technology are virtually unlimited,” said Dr. Esteban Soriano, the study’s author. “The business owners I interviewed describe cutting-edge technology like real-time and interactive video as essential tools for their business success.”
Study participants had many ideas for using interactive video to save money and increase their business reach, including using on-demand video conferencing for attorney-client discussions, doctor-patient visits and graphic image sharing across long distances; on-demand training and continuing education seminars for staff; and data sharing and on-line collaboration among clients, customers and suppliers.
The Soriano study was released at a consumer forum held Monday, October 17, 2005, in Washington D.C. It is based on Soriano’s interviews with small business owners and operators and economic development experts.
Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the study has great implications for Hispanic and Latino businesses.
“Minority-owned businesses are an increasingly significant contributor to this country’s success in the global marketplace,” Flores said. “Hispanics own more than 1.5 million businesses in this country, and like all business people, they are eager to improve their market reach. Competition in the cable industry will increase their abilities to reach out to customers and suppliers.”
National advocacy group Consumers for Cable Choice commissioned the study. “Small business is the engine that drives the U.S. economy and it’s time this sector had the opportunity to access technology their counterparts in other countries are already using,” said the group’s president, Robert K. Johnson. “Competition in this market will strongly encourage providers to reach out to all customer sectors, spur innovation and result in greater service offerings for everyone.”
Soriano, director of research for the California Small Business Education Foundation, conducted his research in California, speaking with small business representatives in large urban cities, suburban towns and rural communities; traditional, female-owned and minority-owned small firms; small business owners and executives from health care, manufacturing and assembly, accounting, law, financial services, retail sales, insurance, graphic arts, publishing, travel, automotive sales and service, marketing, business technical services and property management sectors; academics and economic development officials.
The full report is available at http://www.consumers4choice.org.
About Esteban Soriano, Ph.D.
Dr. Soriano holds a Ph.D. in Communications Research from Stanford University. He is a Ford Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and Oxford Roundtable Fellow. As founder and president of two applied research firms, he has managed more than 700 research projects. He is designated as a high level expert in small business issues with the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and is an admitted expert witness on research design in superior courts. He has served on three presidential commissions, and was a research fellow on a U.S. Department of Commerce study of the deployment of telecommunications in rural America. He understands utility policy issues and served for seven years on the City of Riverside Board of Public Utilities, two years on the policy committee of the American Public Power Association, and two years on the community advisory panel of Pacific Bell. He currently serves on the Public Interest Energy Research Independent Review Panel of the California Energy Commission.
About LULAC (http://www.lulac.org/index.html)
LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States and has approximately 115,000 members throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide. The organization involves and serves all Hispanic nationality groups. For more information, call (202) 833-6130.
About Consumers for Cable Choice, Inc.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind. Consumers for Cable Choice, Inc. is a national alliance of consumer advocacy groups, private citizens and others who are committed to promoting maximum choice for consumers in cable, video and broadband services. Consumers for Cable Choice uses a combination of education and grassroots advocacy to impact change, which will result in a deregulated and pro-consumer market that stimulates fair price, more choices and better service options in the cable television industry. President Robert K. Johnson has been advocating for policies that benefit residential and small business consumers for more than 20 years. To learn more, visit http://www.Consumers4Choice.org.
Ahorre October 20, 2005 05:29 PM