Cyber Monday Shopping is Made Easy with Broadband

Cyber Monday is upon us and many Americans are likely to be surfing and clicking for deals.

For example:

For more than half of the households surveyed in Connected Nation’s 2010 Residential Technology Assessment, Cyber Monday may be one of the many reasons residents choose to hop online to make purchases. In a survey of more than 15,600 households across the nation, 54% report that they use their broadband connection to shop for goods or services online.

This number is very likely to go up after days like today as people realize the cost benefits of saving time and money while using a high-speed connection to do their holiday shopping.

Want learn more about individual states? View specifics below:

Connect Iowa
Connect Kansas
Connect Michigan
Connect Minnesota
Connect Nevada
Connect Ohio
Connect Puerto Rico
Connect South Carolina
Connected Tennessee
Connected Texas

Source: 2010 Connected Nation Residential Technology Assessments www.connectednation.org (n=15,647 adults living across the US in states/territories served by Connected Nation)

Broadband Lets You Take Advantage of the Holiday Sales Without Leaving Your Home

Why stand in line when you can shop online?

For more than half of the households surveyed in Connected Nation’s 2010 Residential Technology Assessment, shopping online may be the way to go to avoid the long lines on Black Friday. In a survey of more than15,600 households across the nation, 54% report that they use their broadband connection to shop for goods or services online. That number is very likely to go up as people realize the cost benefits of saving time and money while using a high-speed connection to do their holiday shopping.

Source: 2010 Connected Nation Residential Technology Assessments www.connectednation.org (n=15,647 adults living across the US in states/territories served by Connected Nation)

Connected Nation Celebrates GIS Day

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day is a perhaps not well known but growing celebration of a technology with global significance.

Events marking the day are scheduled across the country, from open houses hosted by university geography departments to school presentations, workshops, and technology demonstrations.

One of the national leaders in using GIS in innovative ways is located in Kentucky in a city better known as the home of the famous Corvette sports car.

Bowling Green, Kentucky-based nonprofit Connected Nation (www.connectednation.org) is leading broadband mapping efforts in 12 states and Puerto Rico and is the largest single mapping entity through the NTIA’s State Broadband Data & Development Program contributing to the creation of a national broadband map slated for release in 2011.

In partnership with ESRI, Connected Nation developed BroadbandStat, a cutting-edge mapping application that uses GIS technology to provide unprecedented views of a state’s broadband landscape.

“GIS is an amazing tool because it can be applied in almost any aspect of life that can be spatially represented,” said Ashley Littell, manager of GIS services for Connected Nation. “Connected Nation has been able to use GIS to map broadband services and analyze areas that are currently unserved with the Census Bureau’s demographic data to help lead policymaking and expansion efforts to increase broadband availability in several states across the country.”

GIS Day is held in the third week of November, on the Wednesday during Geography Awareness Week, a geographic literacy campaign sponsored by the National Geographic Society, and is also sponsored by the Association of American Geographers, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, the United States Geological Survey, The Library of Congress, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and ESRI.

The Michigan Public Service Commission receives an overview of the state’s Residential Technology Assessment

The three commissioners of Michigan Public Service Commission met on November 4 and Cassie Ruhlman, Stakeholder Relations Manager for Connected Nation, was there to provide a program review, research results, and a planning update for the Connect Michigan initiative.

Her meeting with the Commissioners comes about a month after Connect Michigan’s recent award of approximately $3 million, under the federal government’s State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program (SBDD), to further implement broadband initiatives over the original five-year award period. The additional funding will allow broadband mapping efforts under the SBDD program to continue for three additional years.

The program also focuses on projects that relate to broadband planning activities, such as the identification of barriers to the adoption of broadband service and information technology services, and the creation and facilitation of regional technology planning teams.

A key aspect of the presentation was a discussion of the Connect Michigan Residential Technology Assessment, where 1,200 Michigan residents were surveyed regarding computer ownership, broadband adoption, awareness of available broadband service, and residential uses of the Internet.

As the designated entity for broadband mapping in the state of Michigan, Connect Michigan is a public-private partnership between the Michigan Public Service Commission and Connected Nation to unite local governments, businesses, and citizens in the goal of increasing broadband service in the state’s underserved areas.

For more information about what Connect Michigan is doing to accelerate technology in Michigan’s communities, visit http://www.connectmi.org/.

Link to the Connect Michigan Residential Technology Assessment

New Commerce Report Goes Deeper Into the Issues of Broadband Adoption

By: Christopher R. McGovern, Manager, Research Development, Connected Nation

On Monday, November 8, 2010, the Economics and Statistics Administration and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce released a new study titled Exploring the Digital Nation: Home Broadband Internet Adoption in the United States. This study is interesting on a number of levels.

First, the magnitude of this study is huge. Data for this study came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) in October 2009, with a sample size of over 54,000 Americans, representing over 119 million households. The size of this sample allows for in-depth analysis of broadband adoption, as well as barriers to adoption; with a sample of 12,467 non-Internet users, the Department of Commerce is able to explore the issues that affect non-adopters across a wide variety of socio-economic factors.

The results of this survey are similar to what Connected Nation has found in the states/territories it serves. For example, the Commerce Department’s study found that 64% of American households subscribe to home broadband service, compared to the average adoption rate of 65% in the states/territories for which Connected Nation works. In addition, the top barrier to adoption among non-Internet users is the perceived lack of need, a finding that echoes Connected Nation’s long-held belief that consumer education and demand stimulation are necessary for any successful broadband expansion effort.

The Commerce Department reports lower adoption rates among several of the same socio-economic groups as reported by Connected Nation studies, including minorities, adults with disabilities, older adults, and adults with less education. For example, this national study found a 19-point gap in broadband adoption between non-Hispanic white respondents and non-Hispanic black respondents (68% compared to 49.4%, respectively). By comparison, Connect South Carolina’s 2010 Residential Technology Assessment recently showed a similar adoption gap, with 42% of African Americans and 70% of Caucasians subscribing to home broadband service. In the years since Connected Nation and its subsidiaries began conducting their residential technology assessments, these gaps have unfortunately persisted.

What is particularly interesting about this Commerce Department study, though, is that it takes the survey data one step further and uses a linear probability regression model to look at the marginal effect of a variety of socio-economic factors, including income, age, education, and a variety of other factors. The results of this model suggest that multiple factors affect broadband adoption for each household; for example, while there is a 19 point gap between non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic black respondents, that gap shrinks almost in half to 10 points after controlling for household characteristics like age and income. While the difference is still significant, this type of analysis provides an opportunity to determine just how much each demographic factor affects the decision to adopt broadband.

A case in point is disability status; according to the survey results, adults with disabilities (who tend to be older and have lower household incomes) have lower broadband adoption rates (this study shows a 30 point adoption gap, comparable to the 31 point gap found in South Carolina). Once other socio-economic factors are filtered out, though, the marginal gap between respondents with disabilities and those without disabilities shrinks to 5 points in the national study.

This study is a great addition to the discussion about the socio-economic factors that affect adoption (and barriers to adoption), and how organizations should go about closing the adoption gaps. It also opens the door to discussions about whether a linear probability model is the best predictor, and which factors should be incorporated into such an adoption model; one obvious factor that comes to mind is broadband availability. There is a lot of potential to be found in this report for states as they look toward year two of the State Broadband Data and Development program.