NTIA report: Broadband usage up, but broadband education needed

One in five U.S. households has no one who uses the Internet anywhere, according to research released today from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration. Among households that do use the Internet, 68% have broadband access at home, while 9% use broadband outside the home and 3% access the Internet using a dial-up connection, researchers found.

The broadband subscribership number is up 4%, from the 64% number observed in a similar survey a year earlier. But despite that progress, the fact that 100 million Americans are “cut off from the Internet at home” is a “troubling statistic in the 21^st century economy,” said NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling on a conference call with reporters today to announce the findings.

While some people do not use broadband at home simply because it is not available to them, it is more common for it to be available, but for people to not subscribe to it. The main reasons for not having Internet access at home were a lack of interest or need, cited by 47% of respondents; the expense (24%) and the lack of an adequate computer (15%).

“It’s pretty obvious that as we craft strategies to deal with the adoption issue, there’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution,” said Strickling.

Attacking the adoption problem
The broadband stimulus program included funding for programs aimed at increasing broadband literacy and adoption. The NTIA announced the final award recipients in that program just over a year ago and is responsible for administering the program and tracking its ongoing progress.

On today’s call, Strickling highlighted some of the achievements made by that program to date. As a result of the program, he said, more than 22,000 public work stations already have been installed and more than 160,000 new broadband subscribers have been added.

Later today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and cable industry representatives are planning to announce a new initiative aimed at addressing the affordability problem. The initiative, which has the support of the nation’s largest cable companies serving 86% of U.S. households, is expected to provide cable modem connectivity at speeds of 1 Mb/s or higher at discounted rates to households that have at least one child who is eligible for the school lunch program. The initiative builds on a similar one that Comcast already has undertaken as a condition of the approval of its merger with NBC/Universal (CP: The 8 most provocative things heard at The Cable Show).

Research methodology
The research released from the NTIA and the ESA today was based on data collected in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Survey in October 2010—the same survey that is used to calculate unemployment and poverty rates. More than 50,000 households were asked about demographic questions, as well as questions about labor force participation and Internet usage.

“It’s a very scientific survey,” said Dr. Mark Doms, U.S. Commerce Department chief economist, on today’s call.