Why Are Indiana Residents Not Paying for Home Internet?

Over 12% of Indiana survey respondents did not pay for home internet in the previous 12 months. The biggest reasons were related to affordability and not only about home internet service but devices too. Lacking a desktop or laptop was the main reason why 7% of survey respondents did not use the internet daily. Additionally, survey respondents believed a home internet service was not necessary since their smartphones let them do everything they needed to do online. Furthermore, 73.5% of rural respondents with any disability cited home internet costing too much as a big reason, followed by 61.2% indicating computers cost too much. Also, 42.2% of rural survey respondents said home internet costs too much, followed by 38.9% saying they could not get it installed. This confirms lack of broadband access in rural areas is a barrier since less than 10% of urban survey respondents cited this reason. Between white non-Hispanic and racial/ethnic minorities, 55.6% of minorities not paying for home internet cited the use of the smartphone versus 26.9% of white non-Hispanics while 44.3% of white non-Hispanic respondents said computers cost too much compared to 37.5% of racial/ethnic minority respondents.