Comparing broadband access to adoption in urban, suburban, and rural America

New Federal Communications Commission maps that measure broadband access, and new American Community Survey data that measure adoption, show that only 64.4% of rural American households have access to broadband at 100/20 throughput. Most, 58.8%, subscribe to broadband, a gap of less than 6 percentage points. Even with new FCC maps, 98.5% of urban households have access to broadband, but only 73% subscribe. The number in the suburbs is only slightly better: 97% access and 76% adoption. Before I go any deeper, I strongly recommend reading John Horrigan’s [Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] excellent analysis of this ACS data. The former argues convincingly that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has succeeded in increasing the adoption of broadband in America’s cities; the latter points out the persistent racial divide among broadband adoption and makes recommendations to close the gap. The high adoption rate relative to access, 59% adoption against 64% access, suggests that the currently unserved and unserved are eager for access and will have a high take rate. On the other side, there is plenty of room to grow in urban areas. At 73% adoption, there are about 10.2 million homes that still don’t have broadband. That’s similar to the 12 million rural homes that don’t have broadband service currently. Another 17.4 million suburban homes don’t have broadband.