July 2009 Archives

The Pew Internet and Life Project has just released the result of an April 2009 survey of 2,300 adult Americans regarding their Internet use and access methods.

The findings: More than half of all Americans--56%--have now accessed the Internet wirelessly on some device, such as a laptop, cell phone, MP3 player, or game console.

As the report summarizes:

"Accessing the internet is for many Americans now a multiplatform affair. Just a few years ago, the desktop or laptop computers were typical onramps to the internet for the tech-oriented crowd. The digerati, already accustomed to lugging their laptops around in search of ports for their Ethernet cables, rushed to equip them with wireless cards so they could take advantage of WiFi links to the net.

"Today, the wireless router at home is the center of an untethered online access experience for many Americans that revolves around a range of devices that connect to the internet. The laptop, gaming console, or handheld device may all be connected and in use at once. That's only the tip of the iceberg for wireless access. Wherever Americans can find a wireless network, whether it is WiFi or one provided by a cell phone carrier, many are apt to take advantage of it for a tweet, text, or information nugget."

Wireless Surge

The conclusion is easily arrived at: Mobile Internet usage is soaring. 19 percent of those surveyed had accessed the internet on a mobile device on the day before the survey, 32 percent said they had at some point.

This compares to 11 percent and 24 percent respectively as reported by a similar survey done late in 2007, meaning an increase of 73 percent of those who had accessed the Internet on a mobile device the day before, and an increase of 33 percent of those who had ever accessed the Internet on a mobile device.

African Americans Leading the Trend

Looking further into the demographic section of the survey, another attention grabber emerges. Whereas handheld Internet access on an average day rose by 73 percent for the average American, the same statistic rose from 12 percent to 29 percent for the African American, meaning a growth of 141 percent, twice the growth rate of whites.

As John Horrigan, the survey report's author told the New York Times, "The typical early adopter of a dozen years ago was a white guy in his mid- to late thirties. Now you see the cutting edge in mobile Internet being populated by younger people of color.

"White Americans and African Americans have somewhat different outlooks on the meaning of online access. To an extent notably greater than that for whites, wireless access for African Americans serves as a substitute for a missing on-ramp to the Internet--the home broadband connection.

"Wireless is an important pathway for American, particularly African Americans, who feel that by having a mobile device with multiple applications--including Internet access--they can do without the additional expense of having broadband access at home."

The Wireless Bottom Line

Nowhere is Internet access growing faster than in the wireless arena. And as rollout of wireless broadband continues, including 4G networks, this trend will only accelerate.

The writing, as they say, is on the wireless wall.

Here's one which will have Winston Smith nodding sagely and maybe even smiling to himself.

According to the U.K. paper, the Register, it would appear that Big Brother did not see eye to eye with 1984 being available as an Amazon Kindle book.

In a Twilight-Zoneish development, readers who had already purchased the book (and the same holds true for Orwell's other classic, "Animal Farm"), and who had them downloaded to their readers, suddenly noticed that the book(s) had had vanished--perhaps a few even saw them evaporate as they were reading them--removed by state security censors, no doubt.

Not quite. It appears that Amazon had been notified by the copyright holders of these Orwellian masterpieces that the books were being offered on Kindle without their approval.

Big Brother

Amazon, then--and this is where the Big Brother analogy plays out--simply removed the books from its store, and from its customers' Kindle readers (digital fingers reaching down from on high and retrieving what you're not supposed to have) and then blithely informed customers who had purchased the books that they were being refunded; not being especially forthcoming as to the reasons why, nor telling their customers that the books had been removed from their Kindle readers.

What an Amazon spokesperson told the Register was that "These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from our customers' devices and refunded customers."

The Digital Police

But rather than telling its customers precisely what had occurred, Amazon simply reached down into the many Kindles that stored the books, and quietly removed them. Very Orwellian.

In a face-saving statement, Amazon told the Register, "We're changing our system so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

I'd say that would be prudent.

Not normally viewed as part of our "digital" universe, this is indeed the digital granddaddy of them all: the credit card.

It's all bits and bytes the moment you swipe the card at the grocery store, or hand it to the waiter in a restaurant. How much more digital can you get? Not much.

Trouble Afoot

For years I've been paying my credit cards in full, and only on rare occasions carried a balance--and then never for more than a few months. As a result I am not loved by the credit card companies, who in essence are continually granting me short-term, zero interest, loans, which I pay back on, or just before, judgment day.

True, the card companies do make some money from the discount rate charged the vendors (normally between 1.5 - 3.0%) but this is split between the lender (issuing bank), the card company (VISA, M/C, etc.), the processing company (who also may charge a flat $0.20-$0.30 fee per transaction).

The famous bottom line here is that evidence tends to show that it costs the issuing banks more to maintain your account, and lend you the short-term money, than they make from vendors through discount rates. And that is why we are currently seeing a rash of card cancellations, primarily from non-use.

Nowadays--the financial squeeze being on--it would behoove you to read the credit card agreements. Often they will include a clause giving the bank the right to cancel the card from non-use, normally 24 months.

Some banks have cancelled card that were used only eight months ago.

Credit Scores

Perhaps you have not used the card for two years, so what does a cancellation really mean to you?

It can mean a lower credit score.

One of the factors that determines your score is what percentage of "total available credit" (counting all active cards) you are currently using. If you have five cards with $10,000 limits each, that's obviously $50,000 total. If you carry a balance of $2,500 on two of these cards for a total of $5,000 then you are using 10% of available credit. That will never hurt your credit score.

However, if your issuing banks decide to pull the three "unused" cards, leaving you with $20,000 total credit, you will now be using 25% of your available credit, and that is sailing a little closer to the wind. Perhaps it will not affect your score, but it might. And if a cancellation of cards brings your percentage of total up to 50-60% it will definitely impact your score.

Use Your Cards

The solution is obviously to use your cards at least once every six months.

I normally charge everything to my credit union card (which I pay in full each month), but I also cycle through my remaining cards with a least one charge every six months, whether for groceries or an Amazon purchase, just to keep them alive. This way you will keep you total available credit intact, and you will remove the "out" of the credit card companies--for I have yet to see a in-use card cancelled for being paid in full each month.

That said, I just have a feeling that, as we speak, issuing financial institutions are researching frantically how they can legally cancel such--apparently money-losing--accounts.

A Sweet Deal

One of the sweetest deals in America today is the card you pay in full each month. Convenient, zero-interest loans. Must irk lenders no-end. I am surprised that they don't at least break even with the discount rate income, but apparently not, or they would not be so eager to cancel cards for non-use.

Don't give them this option; protect your digital credit line by keeping all your cards "active." And keep enjoying these zero-interest loans.

According to BroadbandCensus.com, Vice President Biden recently kicked off his "Rural Broadband Tour," and on July 1 visited Wattsburg, PA, where he informed the town hall attendees that according to his numbers, while only about 50% of the area residents already had broadband access, the local school system was blazing the digital trail will full Internet 2 connectivity to other school systems and universities.

Of course, being a politician, the Vice President tossed words about a little carelessly, promising that expanded broadband access will equip students with "21st century skills" -- whatever that means. Could mean knowing how to breathe in a more and more polluted atmosphere, or could mean how to survive on low-lying islands with sea levels rising meters at a time. Sounds good though.

But we shall assume that he refers to the skills needed to not only access, but to use the Internet both as a research tool, and as a gainful source of employment.

The Vice President later stressed the latter in an address at Seneca High School near Erie, PA, pointing out that "to help maintain the character of rural communities, without having to change them, you need a terminal that connects and can allow people to stay in their towns, and create thousands of new broadband enabled jobs."

Given that, the lay of the land does not have to change to function fully in a new economy, for, as he told his audience, "farmers are the smartest people I know," and will surely avail themselves of the new technology as it becomes available to them.

NOFA Announcement

On the same day the Vice President kicked off his tour, officials from the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service, and the National Telecommunication and Information Administration detailed the just released Notice of Funds Available (NOFA) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is now available at broadbandusa.gov.

New Definitions

Apart from outlining the application for funding criteria--which are outlined on the broadbandusa site, the announcement also contains the much-awaited government definitions for broadband, unserved, and underserved, as these terms apply to the government's effort to provide ubiquitous broadband service across the country.

In that context, broadband is defined as a two-way service that advertises speeds of 768 kilobits per second (kbps) down and 200 kbps up. While higher speeds are certainly desirable, abiding by this definition will allow economical deployment throughout the country, said a senior NTIA official.

An unserved area is one or more Census Blocks where less than 10 percent of the households have access to facilities-based broadband.

An underserved area is primarily defined as one where less than 50 percent of households have access to facilities-based terrestrial broadband.

Mr. Biden, in addressing Pennsylvania citizens, told them that they "cannot function," and "that a nation cannot compete, without access. Ubiquitous access for farmers and schools is no longer a luxury, but something everyone deserves, and everyone needs.

"This is an issue of equal opportunity," Mr. Biden went on to say. "The world is changing all around us."

It's good to see the administration following through on its promises.