The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society talks about the impact of policy and broadband adoption…

To improve broadband adoption, future growth will have to come from the same population segments that experienced adoption growth upon the pandemic’s onset. They are the segments where significant connectivity gaps remain—and thus are the most promising for attracting new subscriptions.

The takeaways for policymakers and other stakeholders are:

• Non-deployment issues loom large in rural broadband adoption. Sizable rural broadband gaps across all income categories show how network availability gaps depress rural adoption. But low-income rural residents are far less likely to subscribe to broadband than upper-income rural households. Addressing nondeployment considerations, such as service affordability and the availability of digital skills training, needs to be part of any solution for rural broadband adoption.
• Older adults are a promising source of future growth. More than one in five adults in the United States are over the age of 65. That age group—and, especially, the 75-and-older subgroup—has experienced strong growth in home wireline adoption in recent years, as well as large increases in subscriptions to wireless data plans. Maintaining these patterns will require not just addressing affordability but also ensuring that this population has access to digital skills training programs and community “help desks” for troubleshooting online challenges.
• The ACP’s fingerprints are evident in recent broadband trends. This report’s analysis of ACS data shows positive changes in broadband adoption in the same places and economic groups in which recent Benton Institute research found the largest impact, namely in rural areas and among low-income households.