Report: 'Digital Divide' Great As Ever

While broadband adoption has grown tremendously in the last decade, more than one in three U.S. households still lack high-speed Web connections, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The report, based on a survey of more than 54,000 U.S. households, also said that that a significant proportion of residents -- one in four households -- completely lacked Internet connections, dial-up as well as broadband.

As with other reports about the so-called digital divide in the U.S., the NTIA found that home broadband use is more prevalent among urban residents than people who live in rural areas, whites than non-whites, and among those with higher incomes and educational levels. For example, 94% of households with more than $100,000 income had home broadband connections, compared to 36% of households with less than $25,000. And almost two-thirds (66%) of urban residents connected to the Web from broadband lines, compared to just 51% of people who live in rural areas.

When researchers asked respondents without home broadband lines why they lack high-speed Web access, 38% of the group said that they weren't interested in the service, while 26% said it was too expensive. And, even though broadband is available throughout much of the country, one in 20 respondents without high-speed home connections said the service wasn't available where they lived.

The study is consistent with several other recent studies that show that many consumers without broadband either don't see the value in the service or can't afford it.

S. Derek Turner, research director of the advocacy group Free Press, says the latest report shows the need for policies aimed at driving down the price of broadband by encouraging competition. "Broadband deployment continues to be a problem for the 5-10% of the country where there is no infrastructure, but that's an easier nut to crack than the adoption problem," he says.

Free Press, like some other advocacy groups, was disappointed that the Federal Communications Commission didn't recommend in its national broadband plan that Internet service providers should be required to lease their lines at wholesale prices. "The FCC's unwillingness to tackle the lack of competition in the national broadband plan was a missed opportunity," Turner says.

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