Rarely a day goes by in DC without a panel discussion, new report or legislative hearing on the importance of broadband. Yesterday, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released a lengthy survey on Home Broadband Adoption. Not only does the study delve into the importance of Internet in the everyday lives of Americans, but it also shows a noteworthy rise in broadband usage over the last year.

The study notes that now, “63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier.” That is up from 54 percent in 2007.

In addition, Pew’s study also looked at specific populations, like seniors, rural Americans and lower income households. Some key statistics from the report include:

• “Respondents reporting that they live in homes with annual household incomes below $30,000 experienced a 34% growth in home broadband adoption from 2008 to 2009.”
• “Broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009.”
• “Adults living in rural America had home high-speed usage grow from 8% in 2008 to 46% in 2009.”

The broadband adoption numbers have definitely moved upwards in recent years and we should take a moment to applaud this progress. At the same time, there is still work to be done. We should ensure that all American households have access to some kind of broadband connection.

Broadband can be engine of job creation, a facilitator of educational and health care opportunities, and a means of shrinking the distances between isolated communities. Yet, without access, some folks are left behind.

This is why a broadband stimulus package (part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) is so important. The stats demonstrate while broadband usage is going up, there is still a clear need to increase broadband adoption and use.

How these stimulus grant funds are used is critical. Earlier this year, we laid out a few ideas on how program should be structured around the following priorities:

1. Extending broadband facilities to unserved areas.
2. Supporting programs that enable underserved populations to acquire and to make effective use of broadband service where it is already available.
3. If funds remain, extending broadband facilities to underserved areas defined in terms of below-standard speed and other qualitative measures relative to today’s current-generation broadband services.

We’ve talked about the broadband stimulus package several times of the past few months. A white paper we released back in March provides our perspective on how funds should be implemented. And NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow shares his thought on this issue in this video. We also posted a White Paper from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about the impact of broadband on senior citizens.

Tags: Broadband, broadband adoption

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.