No abstract

The Internet segment of the information and communications technology industry has been forecast to reach nearly 1.5 billion users by 2007. Generally referred to as broadband, a number of alternative technologies are now deployed broadly across the United States. This article utilizes a unique data set of 9000 survey responses generated by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2004 to examine the impact of several spatial factors, including population size and economic structure, on the likelihood of broadband utilization, after controlling for a set of demographic characteristics. The utilization of broadband is found to be greater with larger cities and in cities with large telecommunications-intensive economic sectors. However, demographic characteristics are also found to be quite significant and relatively stronger than geographic factors in determining broadband utilization.Keywords broadband utilization, demography and the Internet, geography and the Internet, Internet use Public policy decision makers and others have broad interest in Internet utilization. 1 The high levels of telephony penetration, across space and across class, in the United States are the results of a public commitment to universal service, dating from the 1930s. Today's policymakers are

The evolution of the Internet in the past decade — from a slow, stationary, and primarily communications-based technology to a mobile, fast technology that supports a range of communication, participatory, and transactional applications — has made access more valuable, and disconnection more consequential, for individuals. This evolution means that stakeholders should embrace a different framing of the digital divide, focusing on the costs of digital exclusion. These costs can fall on an individual, if the Internet is the only way to carry out some tasks, and on society, if expensive and less-efficient legacy systems must be maintained to serve a shrinking minority without access. Whereas the digital divide debate concerns technology scarcity for certain population segments, addressing the costs of digital exclusion is about developing people's capacity to manage today's abundance of digital resources. This essay offers suggestions on a framework to develop tools that will enable individuals to take advantage of the affordances of broadband.

No abstract

No abstract