Comcast has announced that since August 2011, its broadband adoption program, Internet Essentials, has connected more than 450,000 families to the Internet at home.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent (2013) American Community Survey, with a sample size of more than 3.5 million Americans, reveals that 52 percent of low-income households in the U.S., with household incomes below $35,000, now subscribe to wireline broadband at home, as compared to 48 percent in 2010.
Dr. John B. Horrigan recently completed his second study of Internet Essentials customers. Called Deepening Ties, it examines the evolution from non-adopters to adopters. Two of the most notable findings include:
►The key to economic and personal empowerment through broadband adoption is training and education. Those who received formal digital training, like the kind provided by non-profits through the Internet Essentials program, were 15 percentage points more likely to use the Internet to look for a job.
►Almost two-thirds of Internet Essentials families said Internet Essentials helped them manage their work schedules and better balance their work/life responsibilities.
