Rural Businesses and the Internet: The Integration Continues

A study was to assess both the adoption and utilization of Internet technologies among businesses throughout rural Minnesota. Highlights of the study include:

1) Businesses throughout rural Minnesota continue to be characterized as small businesses;

2) 89.7 percent of rural businesses are now operating online;

3) Just 4.3% of rural businesses connect to the Internet through a dial-up connection;

4) Rural businesses are active users of the Internet and continue to integrate it into their business operations. More than half of all businesses in the study report utilizing their broadband connection for everything from selling goods and services online (56.3%) to interacting with government agencies (69.8%). Further, business owners report that securing adequate bandwidth is having a significant impact on everything from their overall cost of doing business (49.9%) to impacting increased business sales (49.3%).

5) The majority of rural businesses report satisfaction with their current connection speeds as well as the price they are currently paying; with more than 70 percent reporting satisfaction in both areas.

6) While 85 percent of rural businesses currently report that their connection speeds are currently meeting their needs, only 37 percent have confidence that their current connection speeds will adequately meet their needs 24 months from now.