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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: May 19, 2003 Broadband Adoption at Home (PEW) -- "Although about a third of home Internet users in America have signed up for broadband, many wonder why more haven’t done so. In our surveys, it is difficult to probe why some Internet user do not choose to get broadband connections. After all, they have chosen not to buy something about which they may know very little."
Reader Comments...
I say it's price. The existing dial-up infrastructure has been heavily discounted to take advantage of its remaining life, while broadband has been monopolized and priced out of reach for average people. Another factor is the abysmal tech support and knowledge of broadband's providers. When I had broadband, the only real help was DSLreports.com. Posted by: Ralph on May 19, 2003 12:54 PM
Giving a free month of broadband might just do it. Why? Because direct experience like this resets an internal clock which tells people how long things should take. When the month expires, the lag feels "wrong". This would be the technique from the cog sci view of things, but unless there is a good study don't hold your breath. Posted by: on May 19, 2003 07:54 PM
I agree that giving away a free month would encourage users to make the switch. However, the unfortunate reality is that giving away a free month requires quite an investment. Setting up broadband hardware en masse could prove to be expensive. Surely, there could be a pretty good ROI on the long run... but who the hell thinks long term these days :)!? Had ISPs thought about it, it would've been a good idea to encourage computer manufacturers to include DSL or even cable modems in their computers, much like computers nowadays have ethernet connections. Switching to broadband would've been as easy as hooking up to a phone or basic cable TV service. Posted by: Francis Wu on May 20, 2003 11:18 AM
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