The Washington Post recently ran an article promoting reduced rates as a way to get more people to subscribe to broadband…

In a survey of 15,000 Americans who don’t have broadband, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they wouldn’t consider signing up for the service at any price. This reflects what we already know: That people who aren’t connected largely aren’t interested in being connected and don’t see how it would be relevant to their lives. But the remaining third of the sample leads the researchers to this promising conclusion:

The data indicates that up to 10 million households in the U.S. for which broadband is available might be willing to subscribe if a subscription discount is offered.

How much of a discount are we talking about? The researchers — a number of whom work for the Federal Communications Commission, which is tasked with promoting broadband nationally — estimate that to achieve a 10 percent increase in the share of Americans who are connected to broadband, the price of Internet would have to drop by 15 percent from what it would currently cost them.

I think this is great news. Two years ago, Connected Nation did a similar survey and found that non-adopters who could be swayed by price were saying $20 per month was their magic number. At the time, that was a 50 percent discount.  Fifty percent is a game changer; fifteen percent is pretty reasonable.

And I wonder if once they had access if they might be able to see the value of continuing even at a higher price. Several Blandin Broadband Communities have tried that tactic – offering reduced rates to get people started and providers have found many customers (one example was 80 percent; I’ve heard higher and lower) remain customers even when the prices went up.