Taking a look at wired cities

The American Electronics Association (AEA) released its “Cybercities Report 2008” yesterday The report ranked the top 60 metropolitan areas for “wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration, and wage differential.” According to the report, the top five “cybercities” were:

New York,
Washington D.C,
San Jose, Boston and
Dallas-Forth Worth.

Comparing indexes is always a useful exercise. The AEA offers some interesting contrasts with the Metropolitan Area Competitiveness Index, issued each year by BHI.

While AEA identifies the value of a wired city or metropolitan area to the workforce, BHI takes a look at the depth of that connectivity.

According to the report, the top five cities for high speed internet access per 1000 residents, a variable BHI lists under the infrastructure subindex, were:

Hartford,
Boston,
New York,
Providence and
Baltimore.

Washington D.C. ranked 21st and Dallas finished 39th. While these two reports do not compare the same exact figures, the AEA report and the BHI report do appear to complement each other and underscore the importance of broadband access to the new economy.

Given these measures, it's likely that high-tech companies and its workers will place a high premium on how well a city or metropolitan area is wired.