Today, Iowa’s IT sector boasts more than 3,000 companies and 46,000 workers. These are surprising numbers to most. Iowa’s high-tech companies contribute $2.1 billion in annual wages to our economy. Much of Iowa’s growth in IT is due to the tremendous technological needs of the state’s booming insurance, financial services, advanced manufacturing and biosciences sector.
The state’s areas of strength include specialized IT applications in finance and insurance, wireless technology, advanced visualization and human-computer interaction systems, and high-reliability, ruggedized computer systems.
Iowa’s renowned research universities offer highly ranked computer engineering programs with an emphasis on technologies with commercial applications.
The Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) at Iowa State University is a world leader in technologies that facilitate the interface between humans and computers. Work begun at the VRAC has successfully spawned entrepreneurial activities involving General Motors, Deere and Company, and Ford Motor Company.
The Iowa Communications Network (ICN), a state-of-the-art fiber-optic communications network, is the first and largest state-owned broadband network in the United States. Equipped with more than 3,400 miles of fiber optic cables, the ICN connects all of Iowa’s 99 counties to the technological and educational resources of the state and enables authorized users, such as hospitals, state and federal government, public defense armories, libraries, schools, and higher education, to communicate via high quality, full-motion video, high-speed Internet, and telephone.
xDSL and wireless technologies have the greatest presence within Iowa communities. Over 72 percent of the 935 rural communities and nearly 73 percent of the non-rural communities in Iowa have access to at least one type of high-speed internet technology
-
Iowa imposes no sales tax on computers or custom software
-
Internet access charges and downloaded information and software are exempt from sales tax. (Sales of goods over the Internet are taxable.)
-
Interstate and international telecommunications services are exempt from state sales and excise tax
-
Iowa’s New Jobs Training Program provides funding for various costs associated with new worker training and education.
Please see the Iowa Business Sphere Volume 19, No. 3 for more information.