Xchange is reporting that the FCC is surveying citizens to find out why people with access to broadband still aren’t signing up.
Sound familiar?
At a session at Supercomm, the FCC spoke about low adoption rates as a key hurdle, rather than access.
The FCC is developing a national broadband plan that aims to expand broadband reach to all U.S. residents but policymakers still have to figure out why some people resist subscribing to broadband.
As we wrote last week, in our recent report, we made the same observation and two of our recommendations dealt with this issue.
- Shift more attention to adoption issues (including adoption of next-generation services) and encourage socio-economic research focused on better understanding the obstacles to, and inhibitors of, broadband adoption
- Consider programmes to improve digital literacy and the use of incentives (tax-based or otherwise) to target and overcome any barriers to broadband adoption
Which side of the border will act first on demand-side programmes to overcome barriers to broadband adoption?