{"id":96825,"date":"2019-07-18T16:22:32","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=433709"},"modified":"2019-07-18T16:22:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T16:22:32","slug":"what-telephones-and-television-can-teach-us-about-the-adoption-of-broadband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/07\/18\/what-telephones-and-television-can-teach-us-about-the-adoption-of-broadband\/","title":{"rendered":"What telephones and television can teach us about the adoption of broadband"},"content":{"rendered":"

New technology <\/span><\/span>can help <\/span><\/span>transform<\/span><\/span> lives and communities all over the world. <\/span><\/span>I<\/span><\/span>n the United States<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>the FCC\u2019s most recent\u202freport\u202ffound\u202fthat more than 21\u202fmillion\u202fAmericans\u202flack broadband access. And Microsoft\u2019s data<\/a> suggest<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>that as many as 162.8 million people in United States do not use the internet at broadband speeds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Based on the way older technology was rolled out, waiting for organic rates of adoption to close that digital divide is not an option. Especially when the physical infrastructure required to support wires is concerned.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

[Subscribe to <\/span><\/i>Microsoft on the Issues<\/span><\/i><\/a> for more on the topics that matter most.]<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

Lessons from t<\/span><\/b>he past<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

Landlines<\/span> are a<\/span>n<\/span> example of a wired technology that was slow to take off. <\/span>Alexander Graham Bell made the first long-distance telephone call in 1877. But it was not until a century later that <\/span>the technology<\/span> reached everyone. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Cell<\/span> <\/span>phones<\/span>,<\/span> however<\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>took<\/span> just 14 years to get to the point where just about everyone in the U<\/span>.<\/span>S<\/span>.<\/span> had one.<\/span> <\/span>More recently, the smartphone made even that achievement look sluggish; within eight years it<\/span>,<\/span> too<\/span>,<\/span> had reached <\/span>majority <\/span>adoption. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, it took <\/span>25 years for radio to reach near-<\/span>majority<\/span> adoption across the U<\/span>.<\/span>S<\/span><\/a>. By comparison, cable TV <\/span>was just above 60% within the same <\/span>time period<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The slow adoption of the landline compared to the smartphone <\/span>\u2013 as well as cable TV <\/span>in relation <\/span>to color TV and radio \u2013 <\/span>can be seen <\/span>below<\/span>. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chart<\/a>
Source: Our World in Data<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Similarly, the adoption of electricity was slow. Household electricity wasn\u2019t commonplace until the 1920s, and then only in cities. It revolutionized almost every aspect of life in the cities and suburbs. But in rural areas of the U.S., only 10% of the 6 million farms<\/a> were connected by 1930.<\/p>\n

The slow adoption of wired technologies compared to wireless technologies can be seen in this graph. The penetration of wired technologies plateaus at around 70% in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Chart<\/a>
Source: Our World in Data<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Closing the gap<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reasons for slow rates of wire-based take-up are numerous, and include lower population densities and greater distances between dwellings.<\/p>\n

Microsoft believes closing today\u2019s digital divide is a priority and that failing to do so risks leaving behind millions of people.<\/p>\n

Fast, reliable internet access is now a necessity for everything from accessing educational resources and building a business, to finding a job and accessing better healthcare.<\/p>\n

The Microsoft Airband Initiative<\/a> is one route to closing the gap. It is based on providing coverage via a range of technologies, including TV white spaces \u2013 those unused parts of the broadcast frequency.<\/p>\n

Ensuring that last 30% adoption is given the support needed is something that can\u2019t be left to the market alone. It calls for a collaborative approach to finding solutions and overcoming barriers.<\/p>\n

For more on the Microsoft Airband Initiative, visit <\/em>www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/airband\/technology<\/em><\/a>. And follow @MSFTIssues<\/a> on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New technology can help transform lives and communities all over the world. In the United States, the FCC\u2019s most recent\u202freport\u202ffound\u202fthat more than 21\u202fmillion\u202fAmericans\u202flack broadband access. And Microsoft\u2019s data suggest that as many as 162.8 million people in United States do not use the internet at broadband speeds. Based on the way older technology was rolled out, waiting for organic rates of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50,192],"class_list":["post-96825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news","tag-rural-broadband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}