Internet Access Stagnates

The ever informative Bill Y, at ODL, sent me this interesting piece of information:

The editor's column in the February MacAddict magazine alerted me to this. Consumers Union (the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports) issued a study in October of 2004 that says the percentage of Americans with Internet access has stagnated at around 60% since late 2000. You may download the report in pdf format at:

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/ddnewbook.pdf

Other findings noted in the Executive Summary:

• Americans pay ten to twenty times as much for Internet Access as consumers in Korea and Japan. Three years ago, the price gap was half as large.

• In the past three years, the U.S. has fallen from third to thirteenth in broadband adoption.

• Four-fifths of all households that lack Internet access have incomes of less than $50,000.

Beyond the policy changes suggested in the study, this news certainly underlines the importance of Internet service at public libraries.