Higher Rural Broadband Adoption Linked with Economic Health

Higher rural broadband adoption rates are directly linked with economic health, according to new research.

“Broadband adoption does have an impact on household income and employment,” said Sharon Stover of the University of Texas, on a webcast yesterday to present the findings. Stover is one of three people – including Brian Whitacre of Oklahoma State University and Roberto Gallardo of Mississippi State University – who conducted the research. The researchers measured economic health based on seven factors – including median household income, the percentage of people in poverty, the total people employed, non-farm proprietor income, the number of firms with paid employees, the percentage of non-farm proprietors and the percentage of employees classified as “creative class.” The research looked at the impact of broadband availability, download speeds, adoption rates and the number of broadband providers on the seven economic factors using three different modeling techniques. “If there were a lot of people without broadband available or not a lot of providers, it negatively impacts all seven economic measures,” said Whitacre. Depending on the modeling technique used, high broadband adoption rates (above 60%) positively impacted the total number of jobs and firms, median household income, poverty rates and unemployment rates, the researchers found. Interestingly, at least two of the modeling techniques showed that broadband adoption had a greater positive impact than broadband availability. While noting that “you can’t have adoption without availability,” Stover said the results suggest that policymakers “need to attend to the demand side.”