Digital Divide Growing?

A survey by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as reported last week in Computerworld, shows that cost and lack of digital skills are the main reasons that more than a third of Americans still do not have access to high-speed Internet from their homes.

The recently released survey and its associated report, "Broadband Adoption and Use in AmeAmerica," estimates that 93 million adults and children over age 5 do not get broadband Internet at home, about 35% of the nation.

This finding actually points to a growing digital divide for Internet access, since companies such as Google are mainly interested in investing in super-fast Internet connections to homes and businesses using fiber optic cables that many say--this writer included--would undoubtedly increase cost of access and in essence only serve more affluent users.

"We need to tackle the challenge of connecting 93 million Americans to our broadband future," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement timed with the release of the survey. "In the 21st century, a digital divide is an opportunity divide."

He added that job creation and American competitiveness abroad require that "all Americans have the skills and means to fully participate in the digital economy."

The telephone survey of 5,005 adults last fall includes 2,334 adults who said they are not broadband users at home. It precedes the FCC's delivery of a National Broadband Plan to Congress, due on March 17. This plan is expected to outline and detail a strategy for connecting all Americans to affordable broadband to help create jobs and economic growth.

The survey found three main barriers to the adoption of broadband: affordability, digital literacy and relevance.

About one-third of the group that hasn't adopted broadband cited cost concerns: the monthly fee was too expensive; they could not afford a computer; the installation fee was too high; or they didn't want to enter a long-term service contract. The survey found the average monthly broadband bill for all users was $41.

About 22% of the group said they lacked digital skills or were concerned about the hazards of going online, including the security of their personal information or being exposed to in appropriate content.

And about 19% said they didn't get broadband because they find the Internet to be a waste of time or don't see any online content of interest. Dial-up users said they remain content with their current service.

John Horrigan, the author of the 51-page report issued with the survey and director of consumer research for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, said multiple solutions would be required to address the broadband gap in the U.S. Those include lower costs of service and hardware, helping communities develop online skills and telling them about applications that are relevant to their lives.

More specifically, the survey found that:

• 78 percent of adults are Internet users, whether that means broadband, dial-up, access from home or access from somewhere other than home.
• 74 percent of adults have access at home.
• 67 percent of U.S. households contain a broadband user who accesses the service at home.
•  65 percent of adults are broadband adopters. The dis­crepancy of two percentage points between household and individual home use is because some survey respon­dents are non-broadband users but live with someone who, at home, is.
•  6 percent of Americans use dial-up Internet connections as their main form of home access.
• 6 percent are Internet users but do not use it from home; they access the Internet from places such as work, the library or community centers.

For the purposes of the report, home broadband users are those who said they used any one of the following technologies to access the internet from home: cable modem, a DSL-enabled phone line, fixed wireless, satellite, a mobile broadband wire­less connection for your computer or cell phone, fiber optic, T-1. In other words, home broadband users opt in to that classi­fication through a survey question not by adhering to definition of broadband by speed that might be read to them.

The main dividing lines for access are along socioeconomic dimensions such as income and education.

• 46 percent of adults whose highest level of education is a high school degree are broadband users at home; 82 percent of adults who have attended or graduated from college are broadband users at home.
• 52 percent of Americans in households with annual incomes of $50,000 or below have broadband at home, compared with 87 percent of those in households with incomes above that level.

Among low-income Americans--those whose annual household incomes fall below $20,000--broadband adoption stands at 40 percent.

African-Americans and Hispanics trail the average in broadband access, although gaps have narrowed since early 2009.

• 59 percent of African-Americans have broadband at home.
•  49 percent of Hispanics (English and Spanish speaking) have broadband at home.
• For Hispanics who took the survey in Spanish, broad­band adoption is only 20 percent.
• For Hispanics who opted to take the survey in English, 65 percent have broadband.

These figures represent increases from levels registered in surveys conducted in early 2009 by the Pew Research Center, which found in April that 46% of African Americans and 40% of Hispanics (English and Spanish speaking) used broadband at home.

The full report, which makes for very interesting reading, can be found here.