The Internet: Who Can Live without it?

February 25, 2010 written by John Watson

In today’s world, billions of people benefit from utilizing the internet on a daily basis.  It has become an integral part of their careers and means of communication.  In the United States, according to Nielson Market Research Online, as of August 2009, roughly 74% of the country uses the internet.  There remains a quarter of the population who are not using the internet.

An article published this week by LocalTechWire drew attention to some of these statistics.  In a study conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the results indicated that the internet home audience of all southern states falls under 60%. 

Larry Strickling, head of the NTIA, believes that we’ve reached “a point where high-speed access to the Internet is critical to the ability of people to be successful in today’s economy and society at large.” 

Broadband deployment and adoption is one of the critical issues that the much-anticipated national broadband plan is aiming to undertake.   It will be interesting to see what the recommendations are when the FCC releases the plan on March 17, 2010.