Welcome to BroadbandCensus.com

Christina Kirchner, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 5, 2009 - Panelists at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Friday agreed that price and digital literacy have created a barrier to broadband demand that can affect more than just broadband adoption. The event was based off of a report written by Robert Atkinson, president of ITIF, “Policies to Increase Broadband Adoption at Home.” The report said that of the 92 to 94 percent of Americans have the opportunity to subscribe to broadband, only 65 percent have chosen to do so. The broadband penetration number comes from the widely-regarded random-digit-dial surveys of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. James Prieger, associate professor of public policy at Pepperdine University’s school of public policy, cited another barrier to adoption: the price of broadband service is just too high. Creating subsidization programs for broadband, or lowering taxes that pertain to broadbandmight be additional possibilities, he said. Prieger said that Canada had used tax credits to subsidize broadband, which could be a possibility for the United States, too. But Prieger cautioned, “Just because you have a plan, doesn’t mean that it is going to work.” According to panelists, another problem for broadband adoption is that consumers may not recognize that...

Read More »

By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, October 2, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission says that it wants to ensure that the pending national broadband plan addresses the needs of minorities, and the October 2, 2009, workshop heard multiple perspectives on the subject, with a focus on “Diversity and Civil Rights.” FCC Consumer Research Director John Horrigan said that there is a clear correlation between education level and adoption: those with less than a high school degree only have a broadband penetration rate of about 30 percent. Minorities are much more likely to access the Internet via mobile devices, he said, although the national average for all Americans is around 32 percent, while it is 47 percent for Hispanics. Although more Hispanics may access the Internet via mobile phones, such phones are generally prepaid and have limited internet capabilities. The biggest barrier to adoption is the issue of relevance, with 50 percent of those using dial-up to access the Internet saying that they saw no reason to upgrade to a high-speed connection. The lack of available cited by a mere 17 percent. Another major barrier to access is simply not having a computer, or knowing how to properly use a computer. While users are able to...

Read More »

By Christina Kirchner, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, September 17, 2009 – Panelists with divergent viewpoints weighed in at the Federal Communications Commission workshop on September 17 on the question of whether the U.S. broadband policy should take cognizance of intellectual property issues such as copyright infringement Moderator John Horrigan, consumer research director of FCC’s broadband initiative, said that the effort sough to discuss ways in which the content of the creative industries could be protected against piracy. With dial-up internet access, downloading videos could take hours or even days. Then as the Internet has changed, the ability to download unauthorized content has grown easier, with audio or video clips downloadable within minutes. A national plan to promote broadband might also end up facilitating the process of illegally downloading music or a video, some argued. That’s way some of the panelists urged that copyright be included in the national broadband plan. “This tidal wave of piracy would hinder the innovation of broadband,” said Dan Glickman, CEO of Motion Picture Association of America. Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, favored shaming tactics, or “service warnings,” against individuals engaged in copyright infringement. When a person is about to illegally download a digital item, an internet service provider might trigger a pop...

Read More »

By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, August 20, 2009 - One of the largest challenges in developing a national broadband plan will be to find out who has broadband, who doesn't and what it's used for, said FCC Consumer Research Director John Horrigan in opening remarks at a Wednesday staff workshop. The agency's most recent seminar focused on building a fact base for the national strategy, which the FCC must present to Congress by February 2010. Susannah Fox, associate director for digital strategy at the Pew Internet and American Life Project, said 63 percent of Americans have home broadband service -- a "significant increase" over 2008. A "key point" of Pew's data shows broadband users value most the ability to share information with health care providers. Eighty percent of users have used broadband to find health care information online -- "the de facto second opinion," Fox said. The survey found that consumers with broadband gain the ability to contribute information and communicate with others, as well as find rich media information on topics of interest, Fox said. Surveys did "not show a lot of harm" from consumers turning to the Internet for health care information, she added. Income gaps between urban and rural areas...

Read More »

By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2009 - Making broadband applications more relevant in underserved and unserved communities could be a better use of stimulus funds than building infrastructure, a group of state and local regulatory officials Friday at a cable industry show here. The lack of relevance to users is definitely the "largest barrier to broadband adoption," said John Horrigan, associate research director at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Dealing with the issue properly will require infrastructure programs to be combined with "training and support" initiatives to improve overall digital literacy, said Horrigan. In addition to focusing on rural areas, California Public Utility Commissioner Rachelle Chong said that "urban disadvantaged" communities is an area in which her state is actively involved through the California Emerging Technology Fund. The fund paid for computer refurbishing programs and technology training in low-income communities. But California has bigger plans, she said, including a "digital literacy" policy for the state's entire education system. One "big think" project that could come next year is the distribution of laptop computers to all students in the lowest performing middle schools, along with appropriate technology training for teachers, students, and their parents. Chong later said California could possibly submit...

Read More »

Reports

Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

Editor's Note:This working paper was originally written for the Aspen Institute's Communications and Society Program's August 2007 forum in Aspen, Colorado, in which the author participated. At the time, the author was Senior Fellow and Project Manager at the Center for Public Integrity. The paper was included in "A Framework for a National Broadband Policy" (PDF). Republished with permission of the Aspen Institute. What do broadband users want? The ability to connect online through some form of access, obviously. Service that doesn’t cost a fortune, clearly. Fundamentally and personally, however, what do broadband users want by going online? Why do 47 percent of adult Americans subscribe to broadband? Conversely, why do a little more than half not subscribe? Why do subscribers keep paying their monthly bills? In considering a framework for a national broadband policy, what can we learn from considering broadband adoption trends, both quantitatively and qualitatively? In this paper, two specific questions about broadband adoption are addressed. Both are framed in the context of also considering the availability of broadband access and the affordability of available choices; those topics are explored in other papers. For this paper, consider: • What other factors, such as equipment subsidies...

Read More »

Key Academics, State Officials and Broadband Data Collectors to Speak

Embassy of Ireland to Give Luncheon Keynote Address on Publicly-Available Broadband Data

Coverage of the Broadband Census for America Conference

• Broadband Census for America Conference Web Site
• Tvol's Flickr photostream of the Broadband Census for America Conference
• "Propriety Data Cited as Challenge for Broadband Mapping," by Lynn Stanton, TR Reports
• "Regulators, Officials Debate Need for National Broadband Policy, Fund," by Carrie DeLeon, TR Reports
• "Service Providers Should Report Better Metrics, Panelists Say," by Scott Sleek, Broadband Advisory Services, Pike & Fischer
• "U.S. Copes with Broadband Statistics Void," IP Democracy
• "Guessing at data," Susan Crawford's blog
• "Experts call for broadband transparency,"by Maya Prabhu, ESchool News
• American Library Association District Dispatch

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, September 8, 2008 – Many of the nation’s foremost broadband policy-makers and experts will analyze and discuss best practices for improving the collection and sharing of public data about high-speed internet access at the Broadband Census for America Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 26, 2008. Panelists at the half-day conference include Rachelle Chong, California Public Utility Commissioner; broadband data pioneer Professor Kenneth Flamm...

Read More »

Blog Entries

By Drew Bennett, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com

August 21 - Looking back at three productive and engaging days at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit, it's worthwhile to step back and examine the so-called digital revolution with an eye towards the future of innovation. What were the essential questions asked by the summit discussants? What are possible answers? I'd like to contextualize the issues that arose in regards to the mission of BroadbandCensus.com. The stated goal of the Aspen Summit was to discover the contemporary keys to innovation. The market and policy issues addressed as a part of this discovery included online copyright enforcement, targeted web advertising, network traffic management, innovation and global economic competitiveness -- and broadband connectivity in the US and around the world. While many of these issues have been around for a while, internet users, innovators and policy makers are confronting them today in substantively new ways. The best way to sum up what's new: internet communications have reached a new stage of maturity as a many to many medium. John Horrigan opened the Summit by reporting that 40% of internet users are also contributors to the medium. While the digital revolution may be...

Read More »