Kelton Research: Home WiFi More Important Than Starbucks Coffee

In a recent survey of 549 American age 18 and up, Kelton Research found that access to broadband, wireless Internet in the home is more important than a cup of Starbucks coffee every day.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents said they would rather give up Starbucks for a year than go without WiFi.

The importance of WiFi was reflected in answers to two other questions Kelton asked. When asked what would be worse, having WiFi go down for the weekend or having a favorite sports team lose the big game, 81 percent thought losing WiFi would be worst, while only 19 percent ranked sports more important.

Wireless Internet’s importance was also stressed by the fact that the technology tied with microwave ovens as “the better invention.” (Both got 50 percent.)

Kelton also asked people to comment on security for home WiFi networks. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they had activated security measure for their home WiFi networks. Eighty-three percent said logging onto to someone else’s network without permission constitutes stealing.

Among the 23 percent of respondents who said they had no security for their WiFi network, the following reasons were given why not:

Only locks on windows and doors (60 percent) beat out WiFi security. (Window and door locks tied with WiFi security, at 40 percent.)

The research for this study was conducted between September 29 and October 10, 2006, using an e-mail invitation and an online survey.

What do you think—is coffee or wireless Internet more important?