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Two-thirds of Americans without broadband don't want it
ARS Technica ^ | 1/22/09 | Nate Anderson

Posted on 01/24/2009 5:26:07 AM PST by advance_copy

Under an Obama administration, some form of broadband stimulus package is coming—and $6 billion is already being kicked around as a starting point. But if you build it, will they come? Pew's Internet & American Life Project reminds us that a hardcore contingent of holdouts won't, no matter how cheap or how fast the connection is.

One important component of any broadband stimulus would be availability, with many pundits hoping for a scheme similar to the universal service scheme that wired even rural America for phone service decades ago. In summing up its recent research on broadband, Pew's Associate Director for Research, John Horrigan, notes that this remains a real concern when it comes to broadband; one quarter of rural dial-up users, for instance, say that they can't upgrade to broadband because options aren't available.

But when we look at the overall reasons why Americans don't have broadband, availability isn't the biggest barrier. Neither is price. Those two, combined, only account for one-third of Americans without broadband. Two-thirds simply don't want it.

(Excerpt) Read more at arstechnica.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: broadband; obama; stimulus
Building technology that is not needed is a waste of money. The best way to avoid that waste is to let the free market decide when and where to build. The billions for broadband where it is not needed in Obama's "stimulus" bill is stupid.
1 posted on 01/24/2009 5:26:10 AM PST by advance_copy
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To: advance_copy
Two-thirds simply don't want it.

It's big government's role to deliver things that most people don't want. And charge a fee for it. And charge taxes on top of the fees.

2 posted on 01/24/2009 5:32:02 AM PST by Bernard (If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember exactly what you said.)
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To: ShadowAce

ping


3 posted on 01/24/2009 5:34:30 AM PST by JoJo Gunn (In this dance of Life, I have two left feet.)
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To: Bernard

Bingo!

This is a way for .Gov to say “Hey we paid for it so we rightly should be able to tax is use.”


4 posted on 01/24/2009 5:41:28 AM PST by Delmarksman (Pro 2A Anglican American (Ford and Chevy kill more people than guns do, lets ban them))
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To: advance_copy

I want it and my neighbors want it. We have been paying for the infrastructure via Gore’s telephone tax for many years, so the “free market” principles have already been circumvented and the bill for this has already been paid.


5 posted on 01/24/2009 5:43:04 AM PST by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: Bernard
It's big government's role to deliver things that most people don't want. And charge a fee for it. And charge taxes on top of the fees.

And then try to censor it "for your own good".

6 posted on 01/24/2009 5:53:13 AM PST by Mygirlsmom (Hope is gone. Change is coming.)
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To: advance_copy
Two-thirds of Americans without broadband don't want it

The same could have been said about indoor plumbing around the turn of the century.


7 posted on 01/24/2009 5:54:31 AM PST by capt. norm (Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.)
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To: advance_copy

That’s right, Zero. Keep the Sheeple addicted to crack-highspeed internet, so they spend all day every day on discussion boards complaining instead of actually going out and protesting the government...

Oh wait.


8 posted on 01/24/2009 6:00:45 AM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: Yo-Yo

hey that hurt

: )


9 posted on 01/24/2009 6:09:20 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: advance_copy

I expect there were some people who did want electricity in their homes when they REA lines went by. Most did though, my father-in-law and his brother support themselves during the Depression by following the REA crews and selling electrical supplies to rural homeowners off the back of a truck.


10 posted on 01/24/2009 6:22:04 AM PST by M. Dodge Thomas
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To: advance_copy

After the Obamaconomy kicks in, 2/3 of Americans won’t have computers left to use it.


11 posted on 01/24/2009 6:22:52 AM PST by maclay (SEEKING: Global Warming Alarmist for Martian Terraform Press Secretary)
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To: advance_copy
When governments offer technology the end result is a lock on that technology. There is no incentive to provide better or newer technology. This causes a major issue when there is a rapidly changing technology in the computer industry.

What looks good today will look bad in 6 - 8 years.

12 posted on 01/24/2009 6:34:06 AM PST by Lockbox
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To: advance_copy

“Two-thirds of Americans without broadband don’t want it”
*****************************

it’s for bigbromofo to say what we want!


13 posted on 01/24/2009 6:43:40 AM PST by gunnyg
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To: advance_copy

Most of the people without it, or that think they don’t want it, are in rural areas.

The peole in rural areas also tend to live in more rural areas.

For ZERO to be pushing for rural areas to get broadban ( which will expose them to non-msm news and information) should tell everyone that he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed!


14 posted on 01/24/2009 7:16:38 AM PST by Beagle8U (FreeRepublic -- One stop shopping ....... Its the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: Beagle8U

LOL..Duh!

The people in rural areas also tend to be more conservative. Not quite ZERO’s base.


15 posted on 01/24/2009 7:19:09 AM PST by Beagle8U (FreeRepublic -- One stop shopping ....... Its the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: capt. norm
The same could have been said about indoor plumbing around the turn of the century.

Instead of turn of century, think of 1950 (30%) or even 1960 when 20% of homes still did not have indoor plumbing.

16 posted on 01/24/2009 7:29:02 AM PST by ansel12 ( When a conservative pundit mocks Wasilla, he's mocking conservatism as it's actually lived.)
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To: advance_copy

“Two-thirds of Americans without broadband don’t want it”

Ummm..., I can assure the 2/3 that say they don’t want it, that they do... LOL...

Having used broadband and using the Internet and also, Free Republic, no less, it makes a very big difference with broadband. They just don’t know they want it... :-)

Besides, when they find they can bypass the MSM and go around the world, if necessary to find news that is not even printed here, and when the paper is no longer delivered at their door (if it is even done so now, for that group), when they can do all the other things that we all do on the Internet — they’re not only gonna want it, they’ll need it...


17 posted on 01/24/2009 7:48:08 AM PST by Star Traveler
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To: ansel12
Instead of turn of century, think of 1950 (30%) or even 1960 when 20% of homes still did not have indoor plumbing.

I remember those cold walks to the outhouse in the early 50s. My bath was a galvanized tub in the kitchen heated by water boiled on top of the coal stove.

18 posted on 01/24/2009 8:08:26 AM PST by Stentor
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To: advance_copy

I am sitting here in a small town (pop 197) in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, enjoying my recently upgraded to 6.0 Mb., at no additional cost, DSL. I am connected to the outside world, 100 miles away by fiber optic.

I want to thank everybody for their contribution to my good fortune via the “Universal Connectivity” fee on their telephone bills.


19 posted on 01/24/2009 10:07:29 AM PST by Chief Engineer
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