The U.S. broadband problem is adoption, not deployment of facilit...
The U.S. broadband problem is adoption, not deployment of facilities, said U.S. Internet Industry Association President David McClure Tuesday as his group issued a report on rural broadband. The study mainly used secondary data, such as listings from state…
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development bodies and telecom groups. Deployment is moving at a “pretty remarkable pace” considering the nation’s size and geography, McClure said. Broadband has seen faster deployment than any major technology in “human history,” he said. But there has always been “significant lag” between deployment and adoption, McClure said. Educational programs promoting broadband adoption could “give us as much or better return on investment” than those on deployment, he said. “Regulation of the Internet of almost any kind isn’t going to stimulate adoption,” he said. Regulation won’t address issues slowing adoption including income, education, and “the viability of the Internet in the lives of individual consumers,” he said. Penetration is the “real conundrum,” agreed David Freet, USIIA board member and Pennsylvania Telephone Association president. Pennsylvania’s greatest broadband challenge has been explaining why consumers should buy it, he said.