Many Internet Users Don’t Want Broadband
A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access.
The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the argument that broadband providers need to more aggressively roll out supply to meet demand.
Only 14 percent of dial-up users say they’re stuck with the older, slower connection technology because they can’t get broadband in their neighborhoods, Pew reported Wednesday.
Thirty-five percent say they’re still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high, while another 19 percent say nothing would persuade them to upgrade. The remainder have other reasons or do not know.
“That suggests that solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so far,” said John Horrigan, the study’s author. “It’s going to have to be a process of getting people more engaged with information technology and demonstrating to people it’s worth it for them to make the investment of time and money.”
Nonetheless, the Pew study does support concerns that rural Americans have more trouble getting faster Internet connections, which bring greater opportunities to work from home or log into classes at distant universities.
Photo by lightfusio.
Chet Kuhn on July 17th, 2008 12:41 pm
I think it’s important to touch on the fact that the reason so many people will claim to not need/want broadband is because they do not have an understanding of what the technology can do for them. My Mom fell into this category for a few years, until the local cable company offered a special rate as an incentive to make the switch to DSL.
Once a user becomes acquainted with using a computer as a newspaper, phone book, shopping kiosk, research station, etc., they begin to have a completely different internet experience that dial-up was unable to provide. With so many applications now moving into the cloud utilizing our now-ultra-powerful browsers as a kind of thin-client, broadband transforms a PC into a vast array of tools that didn’t exist in this form just a couple years ago.
So it’s not that they don’t want broadband. They just don’t really understand the total ramifications of the question. If you were to ask these same users if they would like their PC to have a free office suite of tools, video on demand, limitless audio and radio stations, photo-processing capabilites, file storage, computer backup and real-time news notifications, you may get wildly different answers.
And I’ve only scratched the surface of what broadband can provide that dial-up sometimes doesn’t even hint of…
Angela on July 17th, 2008 5:34 pm
I happen to fall into that 14%, so I got satellite internet. I guess even when there is no hope, there is an option. It’s just really expensive.
jason on July 17th, 2008 6:58 pm
ha, I want.
cassy on July 17th, 2008 11:30 pm
Broadband has a big advantage coz we can already access high-speed internet connection in our households. Technology will connect us with the rest of the world. Broadband has also helped many people become entrepreneurs out of their own homes. With a worldwide audience, people are able to sell their wares all over the world.
Ervin on September 6th, 2008 1:08 pm
well I recently found out that my ISP upgraded all subscriptions and now the external Internet speed is 5Mbps (previously it was 1Mbps). Talking to one of my friends, using the same ISP, I found out that he really doesn’t want a higher speed… and his explanation was: “What? you want to download a the 3 day wedding video in 1 minute?”… yeah… you will really miss that waiting for your files to download… but my reply to him was “NO WAY! I want it downloaded in 30 seconds! If possible make it 10…” after all we have to see that “technological progress” on our desktops… :P
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