The Gigabit Business Park mapping project was touted as the first of its kind in the nation when the WEDC, the state's primary economic development agency, unveiled it April 15 as part of a business-park information service.
The online map identifies business parks that are capable of providing broadband service of 1 gigabit per second or more, an important standard for some companies faced with increased digital demands.
"The new map enables site selectors and corporations to quickly determine which parts of the state have the high-speed services they need," Reed Hall, WEDC secretary and chief executive officer at that time, said when the gigabit project was announced.
Initially, 130 business and industrial parks with gigabit capability were identified on the map, and the WEDC said it would be continuously updated as new sites were identified.
But while the map identifies University Research Park in Madison and business parks in some of the most rural areas of the state, it does not include the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa, OakView Business Park in Oak Creek, LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie or GrandView Business Park in Racine County.
Milwaukee-area business parks have gigabit service available, but they are not on the WEDC map, according to business park officials.
On Monday, AT&T Inc. said it will offer ultrafast gigabit service to homes and small businesses in the Milwaukee area in 2016. It already has gigabit capabilities in business parks.
"It's available in all of our parks," said Jerry Franke, president of Wispark Inc., the developer of the LakeView, GrandView and OakView business parks.
Broadband capabilities, like access to highways and workers, are vital to companies today, according to Franke.
"I don't know of a business that doesn't rely on the fastest Internet service they can get. Time is money," he said.
Much of southeast Wisconsin is off the WEDC gigabit map even though some of the nation's largest broadband providers, including Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Charter Communications, offer the service in business parks across the region.
Someone viewing the gigabit map from outside Wisconsin might think the southeast part of the state is a "giant forest," quipped Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.
If the WEDC completed the map, "it would be representative of one of the strengths of Wisconsin, which is very good broadband service in business parks," Still said.
The gigabit map is part of the WEDC's Locate In Wisconsin website, which provides commercial real estate data, demographic numbers, lists of buildings available for sale or lease, and other information that businesses can use when deciding where to establish facilities or relocate existing ones.
"Our goal is for the map to identify all Wisconsin business parks that have capacity for gigabit service," WEDC spokesman Steven Michels said in an email. "We have not yet reached agreements or integrated data with all of the providers in the state, but we are diligently working to bring them on board."
"Multiple additional sites will be uploaded in the coming months," Michels said.
The gigabit map was produced in partnership with the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association, which represents many small and midsize telecoms in the state.
The map includes business parks served by WSTA members, but there are big gaps in coverage where broadband service doesn't come from those telecoms.
"Clearly there are lots of business parks that have the service available that aren't yet on the map," said WSTA executive director Bill Esbeck.
"I would certainly like the map to be as accurate as possible, and for it to be a useful tool for every county that has gigabit capabilities for their businesses," Esbeck said. "It would be a shame if opportunities were missed prior to the updating of the map."
In addition to indicating the level of broadband available, the WEDC map identifies the Internet service providers and gives their contact information.
The map includes many business parks in central Wisconsin.
"My guess is that every site in Madison is covered, but Madison doesn't always realize that Milwaukee exists, especially in high-tech areas," said Guy Mascari, director of the Technology Innovation Center at the Milwaukee County Research Park.
A gigabit broadband connection, or 1,000 megabits per second, is about 50 times faster than average home Internet speeds. For businesses, and institutions such as hospitals, that means large amounts of data can be moved in seconds — resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
Access to high-speed Internet service has become a major factor for business site selectors and corporations in deciding where to relocate or expand, according to the WEDC.
"The mapping of business parks and industrial parks with 1 gigabit or higher broadband is a competitive advantage for Wisconsin and enables the state to better attract businesses that have high-speed Internet needs," Hall said when the gigabit mapping project was announced.
Time Warner Cable and AT&T say they market their gigabit service to business parks across southeast Wisconsin, even if it's not identified on the WEDC map.
Time Warner Cable offers gigabit speeds to nearly 3,700 buildings in Wisconsin, all capable of getting up to 10 gigabits per second. This year, the company has expanded its fiber-optic cable network — which delivers the service — in the Milwaukee area by more than 250 miles, said spokesman Mike Pedelty.
"I think everybody wants an accurate picture of what's available," Pedelty said.
"We are really aggressive in how we run the business case" for offering gigabit service, said Satya Parimi, a vice president with Time Warner Cable's division that provides communications services to businesses.
AT&T has gigabit service in Milwaukee-area business parks and elsewhere in Wisconsin where the company has fiber-optic cable. Mostly it's aimed at larger businesses and institutions, said Matthew Beattie, executive director for AT&T's fiber-to-the-building program.
"We can build the service to suit someone's needs," Beattie said.
"We are seeing this kind of snowball-effect demand for gigabit services. I hope to see a day when everybody's got a gigabit," he said.
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