10% Of Americans Have Smartphone But No Broadband

[pxc]

The best option available to me, and I don't live in a rural or otherwise unpopulated area, is Sprint/Clearwire unlimited for $55 a month which is barely "broadband" speed now @ 25/1. I guess that would technically count as a mobile only data plan.

 

[mdburkey]

Where I live, Knoxville TN, things are way inconsistent.

In my area (Powell), we have the "choice" of Comcast or Frontier -- with Comcast being pretty much a no brainer if you want decent internet (I'm at 100/25). If you are closer to Knoxville you have AT&T U-Verse rather than Frontier. If you are in West Knox/Farragut, you can choose between Charter or TDS (who now offers fiber to the curb). And, Comcast has offerings up to 200Mbps locally for business and is bringing Gigabit to town later this year. So, in town or in the West part of the county, we have relatively GREAT internet service.

Then you get 20 minutes south of Knox out toward Seymour or south of Lenoir City out toward Blount County and they have NO option for internet other than cellular service or Satellite -- neither Comcast nor Charter services the rural parts of the area and most I deal with out there are too far out for DSL to work either.

Similarly, you go fifteen minutes West of me, and you get into another rural area and you run into the same situation again. A friend of mine who lives out there finally got service from Comcast last year -- but they had to pay the money themselves to run direct-burial cable the last 2000' from the service interconnect to their house (which was NOT cheap to have done).

One of the places where I work, which is right in beside a "technology corridor" (go figure) in the heart of West Knoxville, is right between the service areas for Charter and Comcast -- and neither will talk to us, even though both are within about 500' of the building. They finally got TDS to put in high speed fiber to the building, but they charge a phenomenal amount monthly for it -- and it is still only half the speed of what I get from Comcast at home (which is only 10 miles away).

So, yeah, I know a lot of people (and businesses) who have to use cell service for internet -- simply because decent internet connectivity simply is not even an OPTION in many areas.

 

[sliverjazz]

This is why I believe the crisis in CA is intentional because you can't be so stupid as to let a whole state collapse from lack of water when you have the tech for abundant water!

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

This is why I believe the crisis in CA is intentional because you can't be so stupid as to let a whole state collapse from lack of water when you have the tech for abundant water!

Who was talking about water???

 

[Kueller]

According to this wha'ts worse is that ~43 million Americans (13.25%) have no internet access at all.

of the 86.75% who do have internet, some (apparently ~10% according to this article) have it only on their phones.

Some still only have dialup.

It's amazing how things like this change, as you get out of the major population centers.

That would be comforting to think...If we didn't have urbanization stats available too. 83% of Americans live in Urban areas. There are only 3 countries with over 50 million people with a greater percentage of urban residents (Japan, France, and Brazil). Yeah, 83% of Americans live in urban areas, kind of puts that old telecom argument of "we can't provide globally competitive broadband service because we're too spread out" to bed.

 

[Lowebrow]

Working a BS minimum wage job barely scraping by and can't afford to pay for Comcast in the Portland Oregon area. I'd love to have it, but imo, a phone is a bit more important and versatile.