A week or so ago, I wrote about the $8.2M deal that PEI struck with Bell Aliant to extend broadband to the 5% of the province that is beyond the reach of current broadband solutions.
I noted that PEI already has among the highest levels of internet accessibility but suffers from the lowest rate of broadband adoption in the country at 43%.
I suspect that the issue is more than a matter of price.
Various studies of internet adoption have found that there are different triggers for internet adoption. For example, in a study in Indonesia, women tended to consider “ease of use” ahead of “perceived usefulness”, while men were the reverse. A study in Australia found that internet adoption varies with education levels, marital status, children at home, income level and employment status. It also found that unemployment and low education levels were major factors impacting internet adoption and that seniors (>55 years of age) were disadvantaged because of lack of awareness and capability to use the Internet.
These are all areas that can be targets of community programs. Perhaps it should also be the focus of retail sales efforts for computer hardware and internet access providers alike.
Too often, programs focus on stimulating DSL internet accessibility. We need to recognize that conventional wireline solutions have questionable economic returns to serve the remaining unwired households.
We need to get creative to get around the laws of diminishing returns.