A new trove of data on California’s digital divide shows that Internet use and broadband connectivity remains elusive for millions of people in the state.
Eighty-six percent of adults in California use the Internet and 75 percent have broadband connectivity at home — figures unchanged from 2013 — according to a phone poll of more than 2,000 California adults conducted between June 5-22 on behalf of The Field Poll in partnership with the California Emerging Technology Fund.
Home broadband adoption is lowest among demographics that historically have lagged behind: non-high school graduates (32%); Spanish-speaking Latinos (46%) and all Latinos (63%); 65 years old or older (47%) and households with income of less than $20,000 (53%); people with disabilities (59%) and non-citizens (60%).
"It again affirmed that we have hit this wall of poverty, while we have made huge strides in broadband adoption and deployment," Sunne Wright McPeak, president and CEO of the California Emerging Technology Fund, told Techwire on Tuesday.
The price of home broadband continues to be a major hurdle, she said.
"Our state policymakers absolutely should be advocates to the federal government, principally to the FCC, on the review of the Universal Service Fund to provide a broadly available, affordable rate for broadband — much like the telephone Lifeline rate," McPeak said.
Corporate acquisitions are a prime opportunity to require ISPs to provide reasonably priced broadband to underserved populations, she added, referencing Comcast’s recent desire to buy Time Warner Cable. The FCC must hold Comcast accountable to ensure the company performs in a way that gets people to sign up for existing low-cost programs, she said.
McPeak credited Microsoft, Apple, Google, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others for having "great" digital literacy programs and content. "What they need to be invited to do, is provide that contribution – the content and expertise— in the context of a program such as School2Home. They have to get to scale," she said.
Increasing broadband adoption is of statewide importance, McPeak said. "For California, we’ve got everything on the line. If we don’t have the vast majority of Californians able to use this technology from their homes, then we are missing the boat big-time on being globally competitive."
Interestingly, the poll didn’t show much variance in Internet use between people living in different regions of California, with usage peaking in the Bay Area (90%) and lowest in the Inland Empire (82%)
Also, the polling reinforced that mobile devices are becoming a primary conduit to the Web: Eight percent of respondents said they connect to the Internet only with a smartphone, and another 22 percent said they do "mostly" through their phone.
Access the full report, "Updating the ‘Digital Divide’ In California" (PDF), at the CETF website here.
