The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

The digital divide doesn’t exist?

Yeah… sure… if you’ve got the money for $100+/month cable or telco bills. Even a naked DSL connection fast enough to run streaming video will set folks back $40/month (excluding discounts).

Great news… But I don’t see how it proves that there is not digital divide. Whether it be by choice, or by finances, or whatever the reason, it is hard to argue that there is no divide.

Whether it be by choice, or by finances, or whatever the reason, it is hard to argue that there is no divide.

On the contrary, its hard to argue that there is a digital divide that is keeping Blacks out of the technology loop.

This is a link to a post I did back in ’06 that makes the case

“And what about that “Digital Divide?”

In that link, I mentioned the following article–

African-American Web Users Growing Faster Than Overall Population

ClickZ News

By Christopher Saunders | September 17, 2001

Growth in Web usage by African Americans outpaced the average rate of growth during the past year, which could make the group more attractive to online advertisers, according to new figures from Nielsen//NetRatings.

Based on a recent study by the firm — a joint venture of NetRatings (Quote, Chart) and VNU’s ACNielsen and Nielsen Media Research — the number of U.S.-based black men and women using the Web had grown 19 percent by August 2001, to 8.2 million users. Meanwhile, the overall online population grew just 14 percent.

Growth in the amount of time that African Americans spend online also topped the overall average, increasing 22 percent from last year to nine hours and 41 minutes. By comparison, overall average surfing time only increased 12 percent from last year, to about ten hours and 22 minutes.

Now couple that with the ridiculous low cost these days for someone to get high speed internet access to their home. There are also businesses out there that specialize in selling new computers to folks as a way of rebuilding their credit. Now couple all of that with the booming growth of sophisticated websites like the one in this post that cater specifically to our growing appetite for multimedia content via the web. Folks would not be throwing money this way if there was no such appetite in the Black community.

Maybe you are right… It just seems like there would be one. Maybe because it has been beaten into our heads that it exists… But now that I think about it even a lot of my relatives who don’t have a lot of money have managed to get computers and use them… Not to mention cell phones…. So you are probably right.

“… its hard to argue that there is a digital divide that is keeping Blacks out of the technology loop.”

Taken as a class, it’s not. All you need to know is the statistical data and its point of reference.

Consider:

Approx. 60% of Af-Ams have residential Internet service compared to 70% of ‘Whites’.

Of that 60%, less than 70% (~ 40% overall) have high-speed (DSL, satellite, or cable) residential service. Penetration of high-speed residential Internet among ‘Whites’ exceeds 50%. High-speed service 768+kbps is necessary to Web 2.0.

The gap in Internet & broadband adoption is greater when socioeconomic class is factored into the equation. In low-income urban and rural areas, penetration of 56K Internet is under 50%.

I don’t know MIB… Those numbers IMO don’t point to much of a divide… They seem to confirm what Duane is saying. Also I work in the tech industry and I keep up with what is coming down the line. High speed is still in the process of being rolled out everywhere. And there are new technolgies being developed now that will change the game even more. Within a couple of years EVERYONE will have access to MUCH higher speeds than we have access to now. In some cases for free…

Look at it this way, Wizz. In real-world terms, about 35% of Af-Am households will be able to view Ice Cube’s channel. High-speed Internet has a 60% higher adoption rate among ‘White’ homes. However, those are overall numbers irrespective of household income levels. In inner cities and rural areas penetration is much, much lower, and the differences between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ more pronounced.

That’s a significant gap. More to the point, while the gap appears to be closing its continued existence has profound economic ramifications for Af-Ams. The occasional launch of e-content by Af-Ams is laudable, but it’s the equivalent of an independent record label signing a distribution contract; there’s no infrastructure being created. That’s the crux of the access divide issue.

I understand what you are saying MIB… You are right about the infrastructure for high speed internet not being available everywhere, especially some inner city rural areas. That’s mainly because cable and phone companies have to invest lots of money to expand there networks out to cover all people. And they have to weigh how much that cost will be against how many subscribers they will get in those areas.

What I was referring to in my earlier post is that in the near future this will not be a problem anymore. The newer technologies that are being developed as we speak are not dependent on a huge amount of infrastructure investment. They are wireless and a lot cheaper. There are already some wireless companies (Verizon & a couple others) that offer high speeds internet similar to cable and DSL. But they are expensive right now and not available in very many places. Mostly just major cities. These are called 3G (third generation) wireless technologies. But 4G technologies are currently being developed and almost ready for prime time. These will require a lot less equipment, much stronger and clearer signals, and will be 10 times faster than DSL or Cable internet. They will allow companies to reach a lot more people without having to spend a lot more money. So those pockets of rural and inner city America will be filled. See WiMax or LTE (Long Term Evolution) for more information…. There are a few others too. Several different companies will be using several different types of technologies to try to get your money in the near future. I have even heard rumors of ad based free high speed internet being a possibility.

The government will also be auctioning off the frequencies that are currently being used for public television (next month I think). I won’t get into how good these frequencies are but this opens up another huge opportunity for nation wide wireless high speed internet.

So I guess what I’m saying is that the infrastructure is coming that will allow EVERYONE to have access to high speed internet cheaply.