Consumer demand is an important driver of infrastructure development and what MasTec undertakes as a company. Telecommunications is a good example because it is not highly regulated like energy or water, and there is a lot of competition. Municipalities want their residents and businesses to have the best services and best internet speeds, so it is not difficult to get permission to build infrastructure. Local governments are also open as to how they deal with telecommunications companies. This is one of the main areas of infrastructure improvement. While the continued roll out of 4G has been a big driver of growth, there has also been a lot of activity in fiber-to-the-home infrastructure. The desire for increased internet speeds means fiber lines are an important product for us. More and more is being doing over the internet, so consumers are demanding higher speed at home. This is driving our business. Companies such as AT&T have been providing normal internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps. However, in the past year, a new product has come on the market, Gigabit Speed, which is 1,000 Mbps. AT&T already has significant infrastructure in the state because it has provided telephone lines for more than 100 years. Over time it has improved lines, eventually building internet infrastructure which has the main backbone of optical fiber lines, with the lateral, coaxial cables connecting homes and business. The next move is improving this with fiber lines to homes and businesses replacing coaxial cables. A lot of money is spent doing this work in Florida. New fiber infrastructure, called fiber-to-home, provides substantial speed improvements. The same demands are transferring over to the wireless space with mobile technology. This is where 5G will come into play, which is being discussed by all the major telecoms providers. It could be starting as early as 2018. This is a huge driver for our business and the infrastructure sector in general.

05/16/13– Miami– Kerri L. Barsh, with Greenberg Traurig.

Although the impacts of climate change are varied, two of the most important issues for residents and businesses in South Florida are sea-level rise and extreme storm events. But there are also less obvious, although equally important, concerns such as the effects of saltwater intrusion on the potable water supply. In Miami Beach, the local government has implemented a robust stormwater management program to protect from increased sea levels and flooding. The city has also raised roads up to six feet to combat the effects of rising sea levels. One of the challenges of climate change occurs when addressing unexpected consequences. For instance, a restaurant in Sunset Harbour experienced flooding during a torrential downpour and although the street had been raised, the elevation of the restaurant was below the crown of the road. The insurance claim was denied because the area was deemed to be a basement and no longer insurable. The impact on insurance and reinsurance raises critical issues related to climate change. What happens if you can’t insure beyond 15 years because you don’t have accurate projections of the impact of climate change? This issue is likely to have a considerable effect on the affordability of housing in coastal areas and other regions prone to flooding. Miami-Dade County officials have met with representatives of global insurance and reinsurance institutions to discuss methods of identifying and projecting risk, as well as ways to stabilize the market and minimize issues of insurance affordability. Miami-Dade is expected to employ greater usage of public-private partnerships as a means of funding future infrastructure needs, pointing to its recent multi-billion dollar investment in water and sewer infrastructure as one successful, large-scale example. The county is also exploring ways of engaging with the private sector to share the risk, and helping with the financial impact of infrastructure projects over time. Dealing with the effects of climate change will present unexpected issues and unintended consequences that will require considerable ingenuity to address. The success of these initiatives will require local governments and the private sector to work together and take the lead in connection with these critical issues.