A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access.
The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the argument that broadband providers need to more aggressively roll out supply to meet demand.
Only 14 percent of dial-up users say they’re stuck with the older, slower connection technology because they can’t get broadband in their neighborhoods, Pew reported Wednesday.
Thirty-five percent say they’re still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high, while another 19 percent say nothing would persuade them to upgrade. The remainder have other reasons or do not know.
Read the full story in Associated Press here.
1 Comment
Rohan Samarajiva
Interesting that rural users express a greater interest in broadband than urban.
This suggests that the flat-rate, bundled pricing for local calls that is found in the US and Canada (but not anywhere else) could be playing a role. In the flat-rate system, you do not pay for the minutes you are connected; all you pay for are the ISP charges. This makes dial-up a lot cheaper in the US and Canada than elsewhere, if the call is local. In the urban areas,the call to the ISP is almost always a local call. In rural areas, it may not be. Thus, it is possible that the rural users find dial-up to be expensive (in addition to the normal quality concerns).