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I don't think you saw those statistics in the last decade. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/ https://www.pewresearch.org/inte

• sillysaurusx 3y ago
  It was actually a few months ago. They specifically took issue with the methodologies of broadband companies in measuring home internet usage speeds. When they conducted their own tests across residential America, they determined that most people were unable to connect to the internet at speeds that we’d consider broadband. As someone who was just in the hospital for nine weeks in an area where the cell towers didn’t seem to provide anything higher than 3mbit in downtown St Louis with a >2 second lag time, I can verify that at least some Americans in my corner of the world live in places where broadband is just not a thing. And most of America is rural America. I retweeted it at the time, but annoyingly it looks like twitter doesn't have a way to search for retweets older than 7 days. https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Atheshawwn%20filter%3Anativeretweets&src=typed_query&f=top https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Atheshawwn%20filter%3Anat... Here's some stats showing that some ~27M households (almost a quarter) don't have home internet at all, and presumably just use their phones: https://www.reviews.org/internet-service/how-many-us-households-are-without-internet-connection/ https://www.reviews.org/internet-service/how-many-us-househo... Frustratingly, I can find the wolfram alpha statistics I was calculating at the time, but not the article itself that I got them from. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=162.8+million+divided+by+america%27s+population+age+9+to+80 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=162.8+million+divided+b... EDIT: Aha, 162.8 million was the magic number that started turning some some search results. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/technology/digital-divide-us-fcc-microsoft.html#:~:text=Over%20all%2C%20Microsoft%20concluded%20that,particularly%20stark%20in%20rural%20areas https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/technology/digital-divide.... The study was from 2018, so I wonder how it's changed in the past five years.
  • vel0city 3y ago
    162.8 / 331.9 = 49% of the whole US population. That seems extremely different from loads of statistics which weren't tracking access but whether households actually had broadband at home. I'd like to see the actual proof of that and their real testing strategies instead of just taking Microsoft at their word on that one. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-bro... > Among all households in 2018, 92% had at least one type of computer and 85% had a broadband internet subscription. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/computer-internet-use.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/computer... > And most of America is rural America What? > Despite the increase in the urban population, urban areas, defined as densely developed residential, commercial, and other nonresidential areas, now account for 80.0% of the U.S. population, down from 80.7% in 2010. > https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/urban-rural-populations.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/urban-ru... As for those who just use their phones at home, if their phones do get above broadband speeds, would that not classify them as having home broadband?