The Technology Policy Institute just released a report on Access and Impacts: Exploring how internet access at home and online training shape people’s online behavior and perspectives about their lives…

This research addresses these questions through a survey of subscribers to Comcast’s Internet Essentials pro[1]gram. The 2020 survey was fielded prior to the pandemic; it has a total of 618 respondents. The research also has a longitudinal design by which 218 respondents from a 2018 survey were called back in 2020.

They look at three questions:

• How does having access at home shape people’s online behavior?
• What factors may influence people’s online behavior once they subscribe?
• Does having home internet access affect how people view their lives?

Here are the high level findings:

A study of Comcast Internet Essentials customers finds that home broadband service has…

A home access effect: 81% of IE subscribers say it helps a lot in carrying out online tasks, which in turn is correlated with:

• Acquiring more computing devices
• Expanding the scope of online activities
• Optimism about the future

A digital skills effect, which is limited to the 34% of IE users who have had formal digital skills training.

• Skills training is linked to higher levels of confidence in digital skills
• This, in turn, has a link to greater internet use for education and other purposes
• There is a correlation between digital skills training and people’s optimism about their futures

Looking at people’s digital skills training experience shows that:

• Education is a large motivator for pursuing training

• Learning how to better manage privacy and security of personal information also plays a role

• Both in-person and online modes of training matter to users.

• The time and location of training matters to those who pursue it, and many say a time that better fits their schedules would improve the training experience