Tom DeReggi wrote:
Peter,
" Other figures from research firms like Forrester
show that only about 40% of Americans have high-speed connections at
home, 30% rely on dial-up and 25% don’t have any Internet connections at
all!"
I do not disagree with those statistics. I disagree with your
statement that most DialUp users are DialUp users by choice, and that
most people that don't have Internet are doing so by choice.
I think you are inferring there, but I know several people who keep
dial-up (mostly with AOL) because of the pain of change, including my
sister, who could get SBC DSL by Yahoo for less than her AOL account.
So yeah many are on it on purpose. A buddy keeps dial-up at home so his
kids will not get addicted and be on MySpace all night. Again on purpose
he has dial-up.
The facts are, 60% of America is under served, which is both
embaressing for the US, and a call for opportunity. In todays world,
there is justification for every home in America to have broadband and
to have a computer. Not having a computer, is no longer a valid
arguement. Even the most impoverished homes, can manage to budget to
buy a $300 computer from BestBuy, that includes monitor and printer.
Yeah. People on welfare buy PC's. They buy Xbox. It's a status and
social thing. But I won't write a thesis on it. Again this is from
personal experience.
Or for that matter to get a FREE used donated computer. A pentium pc,
does Broadband fine (although slow and problematic). The reason
people do not buy broadband, is NOT price. It doesn't need to be
cheaper. There is already cost justification, the end user just
doesn't always realize it at first. Understanding that the Average
DialUp user is paying $35 a month already (line and service). The
problem is that broadband is to cheap. So large players can't justify
expansion into lower profit centers, by subsidees of higher paying
subs. The problem is that users DO NOT HAVE OPTIONS. USERS HAVE NOT
BEEN SOLICITED WITH PROPER SALES AND MARKETING TO CONVINCE THEM THEY
NEED IT, BECAUE IT IS POINTLESS WHEN IT IS NOT AVAILABLE.
I think the duopoly is doing a great job of marketing and lowering the
ARPU to get everyone on the internet.
But I am still amazed when I ask people for an email - and they don't
have one!
- Peter
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