The point is we have a well known, if not largely credible source, who
has just released a report that says we (Fixed Wireless Broadband
Providers) are serving the broadband needs of approximately 8% of US
home users. We obviously have been completely ignored in other reports
and surveys so for once it is nice to see us represented in some
statistically important degree. I am not really that concerned about the
exact number of customers. It is just nice to see us making the report
in some meaningful way.
Scriv
David E. Smith wrote:
John Scrivner wrote:
Check this out from the Pew report. It appears that fixed wireless is much
bigger than what even I thought. According to this report 8% of all broadband
connections in the US are delivered via fixed broadband wireless.
Ouch. That study looks to be horribly methodologically flawed.
(It's at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_trends2006.pdf if
you're interested.)
Their survey required the responders to know what they were talking
about -- if you have DSL, but a wireless router/access point, and you're
not all that technically competent, you may well say your laptop has
"wireless" Internet access when that's not quite what they intended.
Here's the question they asked:
Does the computer you use at home connect to the internet through a
dial-up telephone line, or do you have some other type of connection,
such as a DSL-enabled phone line, a cable TV modem, a wireless
connection, or a T-1 or fiber optic connection?
That question gives me a headache, and I'd like to think I do know what
I'm talking about most of the time.
Note that their survey only had about 1500 Internet-using responders,
which is juuuust barely enough to be considered a statistically valid
sample for a population of a couple hundred million. (Their methodology
is a bit vague on whether they're sampling all Americans, or just
adults, or...)
Don't get me wrong; it's an exciting quote. I just hope everyone takes
it with the proper perspective, and realizes that it's probably "high"
by some unknowable order of magnitude.
David Smith
MVN.net
--
WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
