Small Business Broadband Gaps?

What is true of U.S. consumers also is true of small businesses: some percentage of locations do not have access to internet access at the defined minimum speed of 25 Mbps.

According to two recent surveys by the National Federation of Independent Business and Google, around 8 percent or about 2-3 million U.S. small businesses lack access to broadband, says the Government Accountability Office.

According to FCC’s 2021 Broadband Deployment Report, as of year-end 2019, about 96 percent of the U.S. population had access to broadband at FCC’s established minimum speed benchmark of 25/3 Mbps. But that of course leaves four percent of locations that cannot buy service at the defined minimum. 

source: GAO 

As always, it is rural areas that are most underserved. At least 17 percent of rural Americans lack access to broadband at speeds of 25/3 Mbps, compared to only one percent of Americans in urban areas. 

Also, a significant percentage of consumers who can buy service do not do so. About 31 percent of people nationwide who have access to broadband at speeds of 25/3 Mbps have not subscribed to it, GAO says. 

A Google sponsored survey of small businesses with less than 250 employees found that eight percent of small businesses reported “poor internet access” as a barrier to improving digital engagement, GAO says. 

Assuming 32 million smaller businesses, this represents around two million to three million small business that potentially lack adequate access to broadband. The caveat, of course, is that some smaller businesses might not need broadband connectivity. 

A nationally representative survey of rural small businesses sponsored by Amazon and U.S. Chamber Technology Engagement Center (C-TEC), found that approximately 20 percent of rural small businesses were not using fixed network broadband.

That does not mean those businesses could not buy, only that there did not buy. About five percent were using the internet with a dial-up connection. That is not necessarily because they could not buy broadband, but possibly preferred dial-up. That could be the case for some retailers, for example, who use internet access only to process credit card and debit card charges. 

Also unclear are instances where mobile data access was used in place of fixed broadband. 

That noted, there likely are fewer businesses that do not require broadband access to run their operations.