The Internet Innovation Alliance is a broad-based coalition of business and non-profit organizations that aim to ensure every American, regardless of race, income or geography, has access to the critical tool that is broadband Internet. The IIA seeks to promote public policies that support equal opportunity for universal broadband availability and adoption so that everyone, everywhere can seize the benefits of the Internet - from education to health care, employment to community building, civic engagement and beyond.
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Blog posts tagged with 'Broadband Adoption'
Monday, January 25
Navarrow Wright, President of Maximum Leverage Solutions, discusses broadband education and entrepreneurship.
Friday, January 22
Jimmy Lynn, Managing Partner of J. Lynn Associates, discusses the spread of broadband technology based on sports and entertainment offerings.
The Hispanic Institute has released a new report on broadband adoption and minority communities. Multichannel News looks at some of the report’s findings:
[W]hile English-dominant Latinos subscribe to broadband services at a higher rate than non-Hispanic whites (68% of those surveyed having broadband services at home), Spanish-dominant Latinos lag well behind, with only 32% using the Internet in any form in 2006, compared to 78% of English-dominant Latinos and 76% of bilingual speakers.
The full Hispanic Institute report, Toward Access, Adoption & Inclusion: A Call for Digital Equality and Broadband Opportunity, is available online.
Thursday, January 21
GigaOm highlights a new report from research firm Informa that finds fixed-line broadband subscribers will reach 500 million worldwide within the next four years, with developing countries leading the charge.
Wednesday, January 20
A new study from the Phoenix Center finds that broadband users are 50% less likely to give up searching for a job. The Hill examines why this is important:
Discouragement has been cited by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a reason for an expected increase in the jobless rate this year. As of December, a large number of workers have quit looking for work because they think no jobs are available.
“Our study also shows the enormous potential benefit of community broadband centers for those who are not connected at home,” said Lawrence Spiwak, president of the Phoenix Center. “While broadband use at home delivers significant benefits, shared facilities can be a valuable solution to connectivity gaps in unserved and underserved communities.”
Thursday, January 14
Denmark West, President of Digital Media for BET, discusses broadband adoption in underserved communities, and how Internet-based entertainment deliverables can increase adoption in those communities.
Monday, January 11
The Hill reports that the idea of tiered pricing for broadband has gained at least some support with the FCC:
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican, said companies should be able to experiment with different pricing models, especially if private carriers are expected to finance the building of faster, bigger networks to expand wireless broadband services. If people pay for the bandwidth they use, it could reduce congestion on the networks as well.
“Pricing freedom has to be essential,” he said on a panel today.
With more and more devices relying on the Internet, the long-standing “all you can eat” pricing structure for high-speed Internet is becoming increasingly unrealistic. The question is, how will consumers react to any sort of pricing change?
Friday, January 08
A new report from market research firm Pike & Fischer (via Broadcasting & Cable) estimates that new high-speed Internet subscriptions may drop by as much as 10% this year. The firm also predicts that home penetration will reach 65%, leaving 35% unconnected.
Wednesday, January 06
CNet reports on a new survey on Internet usage from the Pew Research Center (PDF), which finds that 74% of adult Americans are online. That’s the good news. The bad news is the digital divide remains very much in place, with 76% of white Americans online compared to 59% of African Americans and 55% of Hispanic Americans.
Wednesday, December 23
A new report from Pew has some encouraging news about Internet use in the Hispanic community:
From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%. In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period.
Latinos still trail whites in Internet use, but the Pew report shows that the gap is diminishing. Unfortunately, when it comes to broadband adoption at home, the Hispanic community saw very little change — from 79% of Internet users in 2007, to 81% in 2008.
The full Pew report is available here (PDF)
Monday, December 07
A new report finds that U.S. broadband adoption may be better than previously thought. Via Broadband Breakfast:
The report was generated by comparing the Census blocks in which broadband is available with the number of subscribers that carriers report to the Federal Communications Commission.
By linking the number of subscribers in a particular state (from FCC data) to a data-set of Census block-by-Census block tabulations of broadband availability, consultant Brian Webster believes that he is able to peg the nation-wide broadband adoption rate for homes passed at 72.9 percent.
That’s roughly 10% higher than previously estimated.
Monday, November 30
Multichannel News sat down with IIA Co-Chairman David Sutphen to talk about broadband adoption among America’s minority communities and the role of private investment in expanding broadband, among other things. Check it out.
Monday, November 23
30 to 40 million households that have access to broadband connectivity have not taken advantage of it.
— BB4US.net, “Report of the US Broadband Coalition on a National Broadband Strategy,” US Broadband Coalition. September 24, 2009.
Friday, November 06
A new study from think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation suggests that one way to increase demand for broadband in poor and rural areas is for the government to pay providers to sign up new customers. From PC World:
The ITIF recommends that the U.S. government run a competition for broadband providers to sign up subscribers in low-income areas. The winner of the competition in each low-income community would get $250 per subscriber, and this one-time contest could raise broadband subscriber numbers by 5 percent and cost $970 million.
The full ITIF study is available as a PDF.
Thursday, November 05
IIA Co-Chairman David Sutphen has penned a column for Fierce Telecom on reducing the “digital divide.” Using a recent FCC hearing and informal roundtable discussion as starting off points, Sutphen writes:
The disparity in broadband adoption rates between caucasians and people of color is well-documented. A panelist at the FCC hearing tagged adoption at about 60 percent for the general population, but only 43 percent for minorities. That 20 percent delta is a wide gap—too wide—aptly recognized by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps as the “digital divide.”’
None of the challenges presented in rural or urban America are unconquerable. Many will take time, money and understanding before 100 percent of all Americans enjoy the benefits of broadband.
Monday, November 02
Among households with an annual income of $50,000 or less—about half of the country—only 35% have broadband service. Households with annual incomes above $50,000 are more than twice as likely to have broadband service.
“Bringing Broadband to the Urban Poor,” BusinessWeek, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 21
A new study out of UCLA finds that daily Internet use can boost the brain activity of senior citizens. Reports Medical News Today:
The results showed that at the first scan, the brains of participants with little Internet experience showed activity in regions that control language, reading, memory and visual ability. These are in the frontal, temporal, parietal, visual and posterior cingulate regions of the brain.
At the second scan, after practising searching the Internet for 7 days over 2 weeks at home, the brains of the Internet novices showed activity in the same regions as before, but this time there was new activity in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, the parts of the brain that are important for working memory and decision-making.
In fact, after just seven days of using the Internet at home, the novice Internet users showed brain activitation patterns that were very similar to those seen in the group of experienced Internet users, said the researchers.
Though promising, the research reveals drawbacks — namely, that convincing seniors to adopt the Internet remains a challenge.
Monday, September 14
Two weeks ago, economists Robert Shapiro and Kevin Hassett released a startling study on how flat pricing for broadband service has a hand in maintaining the “digital divide” in America. In a follow-up to the report, Network World interviewed Shapiro:
Right now there’s a small percentage of people who currently account for a large percentage of large bandwidth use, such as gamers and consumers of large amounts of video. And for these large consumers, their demand tends to be relatively inelastic. They really want it and it has greater value to them. Now, as a general property, the lower the income someone has, the more sensitive they are to price. So anything that raises the price will reduce demand for broadband access for low-income users more than it will for high-income users.
The full interview is worth checking out.
According to Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet Project, growth in broadband adoption at home has increased from just 3% of Americans in 2000 to 63% as of April 2009.
John Horrigan, “Broadband Adoption Barriers,” Blogband [FCC Blog]. August 25, 2009.
Tuesday, August 11
John Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, discusses Pew’s research on broadband usage and distribution in America. Broadband adoption has increased in 2009 because people now see broadband as a must have utility, a valuable healthcare tool, and a conduit for economic opportunity even in lean times.
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