Insight Research: Broadband stimulus funding not nearly enough

The U.S. government's broadband stimulus program intends to connect the so-called underserved with broadband, but Insight Research reveals that the $7 billion of available funding will do little to close the 'have broadband' and 'don't have broadband' gap. According to Insight Research's analysis of FCC data, approximately 45 million of the 117 million U.S. homes don't have any type of Internet service, and when the "no Internet" figure is added to the total of number households that still use a dial-up Internet connection, the actual number of homes without broadband is actually 58 million.

In its "Rural Versus Urban Telecommunications in the US: Changes in Markets and Technologies, 2009-2014" market analysis study, Insight Research argued that even by the end of 2014 about 40 million homes won't have broadband access. Under the current Federal Stimulus spending program, service providers would be able to invest a paltry $164 per household to extend broadband services to those households without broadband. Insight believes a more realistic number is actually $1,500 per household, which would require at least $60 billion in funding.

However promising the broadband stimulus program is on paper, Robert Rosenberg, President of Insight Research, believes the current funding program falls short of what really is required to make any kind of real impact on expanding broadband availability. "Certainly the current administration recognizes the direct relationship between extending broadband access to all Americans and the future health of our economy, but the current allocation of funds is just not going to get the job done," said Rosenberg in a release.

For more:
- see the Insight Research release here

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