{"id":648225,"date":"2013-03-20T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T14:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.org\/?p=8389"},"modified":"2013-03-20T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T14:44:11","slug":"better-broadband-means-better-economy-in-rural-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/648225","title":{"rendered":"Better Broadband Means Better Economy in Rural Areas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telecompetitor.com\/report-higher-rural-broadband-adoption-linked-with-economic-health\/\">Telecompetitor<\/a> mentioned a new report by the <a href=\"http:\/\/ncrcrd.msu.edu\/ncrcrd\/national_agricultural_rural_development_policy_center\" >National Agricultural &amp; Rural Development Policy Center<\/a>\u00a0(NARDeP) <a href=\"http:\/\/ncrcrd.msu.edu\/ncrcrd\/national_agricultural_rural_development_policy_center\">Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption: Evidence, Policy Changes and Options<\/a>. Here\u2019s the info in a nutshell in terms of the connection between broadband and economic vitality:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Broadband and economic health are linked in rural areas (potentially in a causal direction):\n<ul>\n<li>Low levels of adoption, providers, and broadband availability were associated with lower median household income, higher levels of poverty, and decreased numbers of firms and total employment in 2011<\/li>\n<li>Increases in broadband adoption between 2008 and 2010 resulted in higher levels of median household income and total employment for non-metro counties<\/li>\n<li>Broadband adoption thresholds have more impact on changes in economic health indicators between 2001 and 2010 than do broadband availability thresholds in non-metro counties<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And some of the metro-rural differences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The broadband adoption gap between metro and non-metro areas remained at 13 percentage points in both 2003 and 2010; however, this gap increased among low income, low education, and elderly<\/li>\n<li>The most rural (non-core) counties experienced significant improvements in broadband adoption between 2008 and 2011<\/li>\n<li>Traditional factors \u2013 income, education, age, race, and non-metro location \u2013 played a role in adopting broadband for both 2003 and 2010; low levels of providers had a negative impact on adoption while higher levels of broadband availability had a positive impact<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These findings agree with Jack Geller\u2019s findings on the issue. He often shows using Roger\u2019s Theory of Adoption curve. We\u2019ve seen a broadband adoption increase at a good clip over the last few years \u2013 and the remaining non-adopters are laggards. They have lower incomes, lower levels of education, they are older, minorities in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/atreacy\/jack-geller-on-broadband-adoption-in-minnesota\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8390\" alt=\"adoption curve\" src=\"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/03\/adoption-curve.png?w=500\"   \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jack also points out that in some ways this is a demographic that will take care of itself, the older demographic more quickly than the young. I think the NARDeP research might indicate that it\u2019s worth the effort and investment to reach out to these folks \u2013 especially if the increases in household income and employment seen from 2008-2010 could transfer to these laggards as well. The most difficult thing will be convincing the non-adopters. As the research indicates\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When asked their primary reason for not using broadband 40% of rural residents in 2003 said they didn\u2019t need it. By 2010 that number had climbed to 47%.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The NARDeP also makes some policy recommendations\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Draw broadband infrastructure to less economically robust regions lacking it (via programs such as the FCC\u2019s Connect America Fund)<\/li>\n<li>Focus adoption programs on populations with lower levels of income and education as well as racial\/ethnic minorities; involving community anchor institutions is particularly important<\/li>\n<li>Build on diffusion factors such as trialability, observability, compatability\u00a0to expose nonadopters to the technology<\/li>\n<li>Though wireless deployment is helpful, many of the productivity gains and economic advantages of broadband are limited through this technology<\/li>\n<li>Support improved data gathering related to price \/ affordability (including bundles) and service quality (speed)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Could turn out to be some good advice for Minnesota Legislators as they think about the <a href=\"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.org\/2013\/03\/18\/minnesota-office-of-broadband-development-bills-hf1255-sf1128\/\">Office of Broadband Development<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/blandinonbroadband.wordpress.com\/8389\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/blandinonbroadband.wordpress.com\/8389\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?host=blandinonbroadband.org&#038;blog=785113&#038;%23038;post=8389&#038;%23038;subd=blandinonbroadband&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday Telecompetitor mentioned a new report by the National Agricultural &amp; Rural Development Policy Center\u00a0(NARDeP) Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption: Evidence, Policy Changes and Options. Here\u2019s the info in a nutshell in terms of the connection between broadband and economic vitality: Broadband and economic health are linked in rural areas (potentially in a causal direction): [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}