Amid all of the noise about the broadcast networks trying to sell their new fall programs to advertisers in a process that has become known as "upfronts" and the future of the 30- and 60-second commercial, the Washington Post slipped in an interesting factoid: "that 17 percent of all households -- and most workplaces -- are equipped with high-speed Internet access."
Is everybody else on dial-up? What are these people doing? Do you think it has anything to do with cost?
Check out the whole article on the Washington Post web site; the direct link is:
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Tom -
I highlighted this fact in a post about the Harrison Interactive consumer VoIP adoption study at blog.voipsupply.com.
Since we partnered with Vonage to sell VoIP service at a local mall, the number one barrier to consumer VoIP adoption has been the lack of high speed internet.
Due to the way VoIP service providers are marketing their services as the "low cost alternative" to traditional phone service, VoIP service providers are attracting droves of low-cost consumers, who more than likely have low-cost (read: dial-up) internet service. Because VoIP service requires broadband internet, most of these low-cost consumers are not going to upgrade their internet service and pay more for it, just to save money on their phone bill. Hence the reason why the lack of broadband internet is the largest barrier to consumer adoption of Voice over IP.
Oddly enough, many of these dial-up customers refer to AOL as "the Internet."
GS
Yes ...I completely agrees with Smith. With just 17% people availing broadband services, there is enormous potential growth for the broadband service providers.
Hard to equate AOL with the Internet ...