Latest Report Reveals More Progress on Broadband

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The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a broadband status report yesterday that chronicles America’s ongoing progress in consumer adoption of high-speed Internet service. Since it relies on 2012 data, the report doesn’t account for significant jumps in average connection speeds that have been noted more recently by FCC, or further improvements in adoption since 2012, but there are still some key data points worth emphasizing.

First, the NTIA report confirms that broadband Internet service is available to "almost 99 percent of the U.S. population," and that 72 percent of households had home broadband service as of October 2012. While more recent survey data from Leichtman Research in 2013 puts broadband adoption closer to78 percent of American homes, both sets of data show that home adoption is still growing despite the fact that the remainder of non-adopting households are some of the most difficult to reach.

Second, the NTIA report again confirms that the main reason cited by non-adopting households is the belief that they "don't need it" or that they're "not interested." This reason was cited by 48 percent of the non-Internet households, the same percentage as the prior year but up from 39 percent in 2003. This shows that relevance is a difficult and entrenched problem that requires creative solutions targeted at the diverse communities that are affected.

Third, while the report again acknowledges “expense” as the second-most cited reason for non-adoption, it regrettably fails to unpack the variety of hardware, software, and service components that together make up the expense of adopting broadband. For instance, the Census Bureau’s survey on which the NTIA report is based asks respondents who cite expense as the main reason for non-adoption to choose from four different expense elements. One of those is the cost of monthly Internet service, and another is the cost of the computer and/or monthly hardware. In the absence of data on these expense elements, some might wrongly attribute the totality of such costs solely to ISPs, when in reality such expenses can be related to several factors.

Of course, there are no silver bullets to help breakdown adoption barriers. The FCC’s broadband pilot projects that are part of the universal service program reflect one such approach aimed at providing assistance to certain low-income households. Other private programs, like Comcast’s Internet Essentials and Cox’s joint venture with Connect2Compete, are designed more holistically to work with low-income families to build digital literacy skills and to provide discounted access to computer and service offerings. While we revel in the knowledge that broadband adoption has progressed faster than any communications technology in history, NTIA’s report serves as a welcome reminder that our progress is good, but that our job is not yet complete.