I’ll preface this post by saying (again) that I think there’s a permanent place in the world for wired and wireless access. The question of preference has come up lately as people are required to make choices – generally based on finances. Remote communities choose wireless options because it’s so much cheaper than fiber. Residents choose wireless often because a wireless-friendly device (tablet, smartphone) is so much cheaper than a laptop. The National Broadband Plan and federal funding leans toward wireless with the Mobility Fund.
But Telecompetitor is reporting that when asked, UK residents would choose wired over video and mobile services…
If they had to give up one service (video entertainment, mobile, broadband), U.K. consumers would ditch video (49 percent) or mobile (30 percent) before their fixed network broadband connection (two percent), a survey of more than 10,000 U.K. consumers has found.
The article goes on to describe the survey takers…
Nor is it clear whether the thinkbroadband findings are in some way atypical of “most” consumers. The survey is skewed towards early adopters and information technology-literate users.
About 41 percent of respondents described themselves as “confident” with IT and 49 percent said they considered themselves “power users.”
Still, 51 percent of respondents say they use broadband “for personal use only.” Some 46 percent of respondents use their broadband for work.
In many rural areas, wireless is the only option for internet that has a speed in the low-moderate broadband range. Older copperbased DSL simply doesn’t deliver. Same situation in third-world countries…wireless is the only option and readily available via smart phones. So this is not a matter of choice in many rural areas…there is no choice!
By: nyssa52@northlc.com on March 29, 2013
at 2:08 pm
Agree with Nyssa52, some areas have no choice, and I think it is up to governments to give them a choice by providing a dark fibre to each area. It is then up to the community whether they use wifi or fibre up the area. The only way to tackle this digital divide is by helping altnets to fill in the gaps, thus providing much needed competition.
By: chrisconder on April 1, 2013
at 7:08 pm