Based on recent findings from a Pew Internet survey one in every five Americans dont have broadband access “for reasons that won’t be addressed by price cuts or a fiber node in a neighbourhood.”
It has been found that a large proportion of American users that currently don’t have a connection to broadband are not likely to get it, with most of these users falling into two groups which are those that just don’t want it and those who can’t access fast broadband because they don’t even have a computer.
A report has been released by the associate director for research at the market research company, John Horrigan titled “If You Build It, Will They Log On?” This question was partially answered by Horrigan who said it would be hard to reach and educate many of the lower-income and older Americans on how to use broadband and its value. A total of 4 254 people were surveyed and the report by Horrigan was based on the results.
In the report Horrigan said “When half of dial-up and nonusers cite reasons such as ‘not interested’ or ‘nothing could get me to switch,’ it seems clear that networked digital resources do not play enough of a role in their lives to justify a broadband connection.”
In light of the push by President Obama to provide lower-income and rural areas with broadband the problem of the widespread provision of broadband that is more robust is now taking on new relevance. A broadband connection is something that many Americans that live in rural areas have said they want, unfortunately in must of these areas only a dial-up service or in some case nothing at all can often leave many frustrated. For some of the elderly and in many lower-income areas there is a different story, which is that they simply do not want access to a broadband connection.
Although the expectation is that the process of education may take longer than was originally expected Horrigan said he believes that a lot more Americans will welcome broadband than at present. Horrigan said “One in five Americans currently don’t have broadband for reasons that won’t be addressed by price cuts or a fiber node in a neighborhood. It will take time to get them up and running on broadband.”