About a Quarter of Rural Americans Say Access To High-Speed Internet Is a Major Problem (pewresearch.org)

According to a Pew Research Center survey, 24% of rural adults say access to high-speed internet is a major problem in their local community. "An additional 34% of rural residents see this as a minor problem, meaning that roughly six-in-ten rural Americans (58%) believe access to high speed internet is a problem in their area," the report says. From the report: By contrast, smaller shares of Americans who live in urban areas (13%) or the suburbs (9%) view access to high-speed internet service as a major problem in their area. And a majority of both urban and suburban residents report that this is not an issue in their local community, according to the survey, conducted Feb. 26-March 11. Concerns about access to high-speed internet are shared by rural residents from various economic backgrounds. For example, 20% of rural adults whose household income is less than $30,000 a year say access to high speed internet is a major problem, but so do 23% of rural residents living in households earning $75,000 or more annually. These sentiments are also similar between rural adults who have a bachelor's or advanced degree and those with lower levels of educational attainment. There are, however, some differences by age and by race and ethnicity. Rural adults ages 50 to 64 are more likely than those in other groups to see access to high-speed internet as a problem where they live. Nonwhites who live in a rural area are more likely than their white counterparts to say this is a major problem (31% vs. 21%).

Comments

Shouldn't the title be Lack of Access be a Problem

[Streetlight]

If rural folks have access to high speed Internet, I don't see how that's a problem.

I have in laws living on Iowa farms only a three or four miles from a town that has very good high speed Internet but their only wired connection is dial up. Lack of HS Internet is a real problem considering all the high tech graphical agricultural information available to them from a wide variety of sources.

Re: It's not just rural

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok I do not know where in Seattle you are but I have lived here for years and had broadband all that time. I am not calling you a liar I am just wondering where you and your coworkers live such that you cannot get better than T1.

Obviously I can't answer your question living a couple thousand miles away, but it has been my experience that what greenwow was saying is very similar to where I live near Lansing, and wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Here, you can get 1Gb fiber. Or maybe not, and the best you can get is 100Mb cable, unless it's 40Mb cable. Or maybe not, and 1.5Mb DSL is all you can get.

It's totally fucking random depending on what provider "owns" what area. All within a few miles around the same city.

Re: Trade-offs

[datavirtue]

It's called Cincinnati. All the big city advantages with none of the big city drawbacks. Traffic at rush hour is as bad as it gets and that is barely an inconvenience in only a few places. Our two internet suppliers are constantly duking it out on price, speed, and terms.

Re: Possible Fix - LEO satellite internet

[datavirtue]

Fuck satellite internet. Everyone in the sticks has it and it is pretty damn good but the latency and upload capability blows. It's amazing if you are in the jungle...not so much if you are living in civilization daily. It is also capped. Seems adequate until you have to live with it.