Broadband Utilization in Space: Effects of Population and Economic Structure

The Internet segment of the information and communications technology industry has been forecast to reach nearly 1.5 billion users by 2007. Generally referred to as broadband, a number of alternative technologies are now deployed broadly across the United States. This article utilizes a unique data set of 9000 survey responses generated by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2004 to examine the impact of several spatial factors, including population size and economic structure, on the likelihood of broadband utilization, after controlling for a set of demographic characteristics. The utilization of broadband is found to be greater with larger cities and in cities with large telecommunications-intensive economic sectors. However, demographic characteristics are also found to be quite significant and relatively stronger than geographic factors in determining broadband utilization.