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Why is mobile Internet access key to digital expansion?

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Broadband Internet service is available for nearly every house in New York City, yet less than half have adopted it. Barely a quarter of low income households pay for a high speed connection at home.

As PPH Policy Director Joshua Breitbart explains in this audio clip, Internet access on mobile phones brings connectivity to people where they  are on devices that they have already decided to pay for. This is a better way to get people online than trying to convince them to buy a new machine and pay for a new service.

Disparities in mobile phone use, even with data services like email or web, are much smaller than at-home Internet connections, in terms of class, race, and age. Mobile phones are far more widespread than computers with at-home Internet, especially among the groups currently marginalized from the Internet. 

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project study, "Mobile Access to Data and Information,"

More striking is use among African Americans and Latinos. Some 56% of English-speaking Hispanics with a wireless handheld device use a non-voice data or information application on the average day, and 50% of African Americans with wireless handhelds do so. These groups lagged in “desktop” online access in the late 1990s and early part of the decade, but the report shows a very different pattern for wireless access on the go. African Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are more likely than white Americans to use cell phones or PDAs for non-voice data applications.

 

Key statistics

 

Internet service availability in New York City:

  • Cable is available in 98% of households.*
  • DSL is available in 87% of households.*

 

Disparities in broadband adoption in New York City:

  • Broadband usage** in
      • The Bronx: 38.8%
      • Brooklyn: 41.5%
      • Queens: 46.4%
      • Manhattan: 55.7%
      • Staten Island: 57.9%
      • All boroughs: 46.4%
     
  • 54% of moderate and high-income households in New York City have high-speed Internet access at home.*
     
  • 26% of low-income households in New York City have high-speed Internet access at home.*

 

Disparities in broadband adoption in the United States:

  • 54% of the population has a high-speed Internet connection at home.***
  • 20% of seniors over 65 years old have a high-speed Internet connection at home.***
     
  • 40% of people with income under $30,000 have a high-speed Internet connection at home.***
  • 38% of African Americans have a high-speed Internet connection at home.***

 

The divide shrinks when looking at mobile phone use:

  • 75% of the population reports owning a cell phone.***
     
  • 71% of African Americans have cell phones.***
  • 61% of people with income under $30,000 have cell phones.***
  • 50% of people age 65 and older have cell phones.***

 

*  Source: New York City Broadband Needs Assessment Study (Discussion Draft, September 6, 2007)
** Source: Scarborough Market Research, '06-'07
***Source: Pew Internet & American Life Survey, December 2007.