CostQuest Associates
Bandwidth Assessment Tool

Businesses today are redefining bandwidth as a requirement and no longer as a value added service. Bandwidth is now an essential commodity, in the same category as power, water, sewer, and other vital services. In order for businesses and other entities to be effective in the information intensive economy, they need bandwidth to be delivered on a redundant infrastructure.

Fueled by the realized benefits of information, communication, and commerce over the Internet, businesses and residential demand for more flexible, higher speed services are increasing. The need for additional bandwidth is expected to grow exponentially year over year, especially in densely populated or urban areas. With this type of rapid growth, some rural, state, and local planners are finding that providers have less incentive to provide the bandwidth necessary for rural businesses to compete in today’s economy or it’s not economically feasible for most rural entities to obtain. Part of this has to do with having virtually little to no accurate way of determining demand in a given area. CostQuest Associates has identified this need and we have created a web based Bandwidth Assessment Tool that helps consumers understand their broadband needs and helps state and local planners determine and meet the expanding broadband requirements of their businesses and communities.

For today's businesses and communities to benefit from the infrastructure build-outs and advances in technology, state and local planners must become "Bandwidth Needs Intelligent." Communities must evolve beyond the limited closed systems currently in place and continue to build upon more open transport systems therein providing businesses and homes with more choice at lower costs. Traditional solutions (i.e., of single-use telephones, or video service providers) will not be able to accommodate the required diversity in service demand (i.e. HD Quality Video Streaming, VoIP, Advanced Interactive Applications, etc.) due primarily to lack of flexibility and/or limited capacity. To help inform this issue, CostQuest Associates' real-world Bandwidth Assessment Tool is designed to provide an accurate interpretation of end user needs and allows them to connect with companies who might supply them with the services that meet those needs.