Global Cities and Telecoms
In the Global City, Saskia Sassen writes:
The fact that telecommunications and information technologies are essential to both processes has added yet another force for agglomeration. Finance and specialized services are major users of such technologies and need access to the most advanced facilities. These technologies, which make possible long distance management and servicing and instantaneous money transfers, require complex physical facilities, which are highly immobile. Such facilities demand major investments in fixed capital and continuous incorporation of innovations. There are, then, huge entry costs at this point for any locality seeking to develop advanced facilities. Established telecommunications centers have what amounts to an almost absolute advantage.
Is this changing? I’m not saying that Peoria is going to be the next global city, but are today’s telecommunications investments not fundamentally different? Take a look at the newest project by NYSE Euronext, located in Mahwah, New Jersey.
