Broadband Connections Dropping Among Poorer Americans

Kevin Maney is concerned: Something is going sour in the effort to get lower-income people on broadband Internet. The new Pew Internet and American Life Project study, Home Broadband Adoption 2008, shows broadband adoption shrinking in households with under $20,000 income. A year ago, broadband was in about 28% of those homes. Now it's 25%. Also, among African-Americans of all incomes, growth in broadband is slowing. About 40% of African-American adults had broadband a year ago, and that's up slightly to 43%. Among all Americans, broadband is up to 55% from 47% a year ago.

Why is this happening? The first thought might be broadband prices going up as the economy sinks, but that's not quite true. The study found that overall broadband costs about 4% less than it did in 2005.Though price still ranks as the chief reason respondents gave for not getting broadband.

About 27% of Americans don't use the Internet, and when asked why, 33% of them said they are just not interested. So about 9% of Americans have absolutely no interest in the Internet.

The study is a bit alarming to entities working to pinch off the so-called digital divide. "The big take away for us is that while making broadband available and affordable are important goals, more needs to be done on an educational and cultural level to reach the 'not interested' cohort," Austin Bonner at One Economy tells me.