Road map to prevent road kill on information superhighway

[Commentary] Too many Americans are not online and, as a nation, we must do more to make sure all of us can take advantage of the digital world.

When the Federal Communications Commission released the National Broadband Plan four years ago, 35 percent of Americans did not have broadband Internet service at home. That gap has narrowed only modestly since then to 30 percent. Globally, the United States ranks a sluggish 16th out of the 34 nations in the developed West in broadband adoption.

I know the numbers well because for years it has been my job to compile and assess them. I decided to conduct an unprecedented study to give a voice in this policy debate to families traveling the path to home Internet connectivity, to ask new broadband adopters themselves how they made it. I did this through a survey of nearly 2,000 low-income families with children who had signed up for broadband through Comcast's Internet Essentials program, which has enrolled over 300,000 low-income families for home broadband since 2011.

The data are striking. Eighty-three percent of new adopters reported their child's school expected them to be online. Fifty percent or more said health insurance companies or government agencies expected it. Sixty-five percent said their bank expected it. The data also show how "social effects" from being immersed in an Internet-savvy community can drive broadband adoption. Fifty percent of new online users say all or most of the people they know have broadband at home. And people with such connections are a third more likely to regularly use the Internet than those without friends and neighbors who are online.

This information gives us a clear playbook for how to tackle the stubborn, final 30 percent shortfall in digital inclusion. First, institutions such as banks, health-care providers, and schools must recognize their own interest in having a fully connected customer base. It's also critical to find ways to connect people who live in "Internet deserts" today -- lacking the kind of plugged in social networks that draw people online and help them see the value in the Web. For them we need more "safe spaces" in schools, libraries, community centers, and non-profits where they can get started negotiating the Web in comfortable local places alongside others who are on the same journey.

Public and private investment has made a good start on this work around the country -- at the Commerce Department, for example, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has invested $450 million in public computing centers and sustainable broadband initiatives.

But much of that funding is drying up as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expires. We need to find new sources of investment and engagement from all stakeholders to continue this work.

[Horrigan is an independent communications and technology policy consultant]