Discussion
All of this is interesting, but what does it mean for Estes Park, Colorado? Clearly the primary role that tourism plays in the area's economy is not going to vanish; in fact, continued growth may be expected. And is the much-publicized information highway for real, or just a product of media hype? Addressing the latter question first, it is the determination of the task force that developments utilizing the information highway are already very real and quite pervasive. In our search for examples of information-based business activities, we found dozens of examples.
Information provided by the Center for the New West, a Denver think-tank, included many stories about individuals who pursue their professions from remote locations using contemporary communications technology. The Center calls these work-at-home entrepreneurs attracting such workers to a community. Perhaps even more persuasive evidence is the fact that several other communities in Colorado, and throughout the Rocky Mountain West, have already embarked on programs to attract information-based business to their communities; places such as Telluride, Aspen, Frisco, Steamboat Springs, Buffalo, Wyoming, and others.
These towns share many common characteristics with Estes Park. They typically have depended on tourism for their economic base, and are located at "the end of the road", a physical barrier to manufacturing development due to transportation costs. In addition, like Estes Park, they have not had the communications infrastructure in place until recently to pursue economic diversification on that basis.
As part of its mission, the task force investigated the current status and future plans for the telecommunications services and facilities provided to the Estes Park area by the local exchange carrier, US West. Meetings with US West personnel culminated in a presentation to the Town Light and Power Committee on March 10, 1994 at which US West outlined construction plans for the area which will result in significant improvement in both the availability of service and the levels of services available.
The US West plan, to be accomplished during 1994 and most of 1995 will involve the placing of fiber optic distribution facilities, throughout the Estes Valley. The result will be extremely high quality voice grade service, will all one-party lines, and an engineered capacity of at least three lines per service location. In addition, these facilities will also support higher speed services, up to and including T-1 circuits, which will operate at 1.544 megabits per second. These facilities will meet the needs of nearly every service requirement.
The task force is satisfied that the announced US West plan will provide in sufficient quantity to meet the current and future needs of our residents. The task force also notes that US West has recently announced a tariff change which allows individuals working from their homes to use either business or residence service lines. This will result in potentially significant savings in the cost per month for additional lines; the primary difference between the two categories being the provision of a Yellow Pages listing with a business line.