Digital Divide: DSL services most popular with price-sensitive households

[regic]

A new kind of digital divide is emerging in the U.S. broadband market.

On one side are middle-income and price-sensitive households, which tend to favor DSL service offered by phone companies. On the other are more affluent families, which gravitate toward higher-speed cable modem services.

According to a recent report published by Leichtman Research Group, about 21 percent of households earning an annual income of between $30,000 and $75,000 a year subscribe to DSL. About 18 percent of these households subscribe to cable. By contrast, 37 percent of all households with annual household incomes over $75,000 subscribe to cable broadband and 27 percent subscribe to DSL...

full article: http://news.com.com/DSL+strikes+a+chord+...g=nefd.pop

[iron_chick]

Uh . . . does this study even attempt to factor in the availability issue? 

I have bellsouth DSL because it's the ONLY alternative where I live to dial up.    I live in the boonies - farmland.  Admittedly . . . what one would call a middle-income and price-sensitive neighborhood.  But, it would be inaccurate to say ANY of us favor DSL over cable . . . since we have no choice.

The folks who live in the ritzy neighborhoods in town - they have options - they can choose DSL or cable.    They have a choice.

This sort of situation is not at all uncommon where I live and in other areas in the non-urban south.  We just recently got DSL out here (you don't even want to know what the fine folks at the local phone company are charging me - way more than any of the prices quoted in that article).    I'd suspect that many of us "choosing" DSL are paying more than many of the folks choosing cable over DSL, when that option exists.

Anyway, it's the old lies, damn lies, and statistics thing . . . but these stats seem meaningless unless they are based on samples with equal access and I doubt they are. 

Beth, househunting in town . . . .

[kim]

On the other are more affluent families, which gravitate toward higher-speed cable modem services.

Cable is slower than DSL in London because we have ADSL2. My ADSL2 is 16 MB. £24.50 monthly.

[regic]

Uh . . . does this study even attempt to factor in the availability issue?

Cable is slower than DSL in London because we have ADSL2. My ADSL2 is 16 MB. £24.50 monthly.

I don't think the researchers considered availability.  The 16MB and 20MB ADSL2 connections that Kim and Mandy have in London compared to the slower 1-8 MB cable and DSL connections people in other areas have are a good example of the availablity. issue.  Due to the technical limitations of ADSL2, the only people who will ever be able to choose the much faster ADSL2 technology and enjoy speeds of 16MB-24 MB are those who live within 2 km of a central switching station in a major city.