To solve a problem, one must have a theory about what causes the problem. Consider broadband non-adoption. Some households cannot subscribe because service is not available at the home. The solution there is to build and extend networks so the option to buy is available.
For households that can purchase service, they do not for a variety of reasons, including the inability to pay the market price. Subsidies can help, in that case. Non-interest is a much-harder problem, and is not easy to solve, since it is hard to sell a product, no matter what the price, if the product solves no perceived problem.
“Consistently, the U.S. Census Bureau surveys reveal that the primary cause for non-adoption is a lack of interest in what the Internet offers,” says George Ford, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies chief economist. “A distant second reason is the expense of the service and/or the devices required to use it.”
Surveys by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration clearly show that “do not need it” has become the main reason households do not buy fixed network internet access, by about a three to one margin over respondents who say it is “too expensive.”
According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the main barrier to adoption now seems to be that potential buyers do not see the need. Very few say cost is the main barrier for not buying.
The point is that internet access adoption cannot be “solved” completely by any single tactic. Extending networks works if one assumes those new locations want to buy and use internet access. Subsidizing usage might convince a small percentage of people to buy. But some consumers might simply refuse to buy, no matter what is available and at what price, because they do not wish to use the internet and do not find it useful.
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