At the CBAIS conference in Cleveland today, Laura Breeden of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration helped to clarify the following questions: “Who is an adopter, who is a subscriber, and who do we count?” for BTOP grantees in the audience.

Breeden said the NTIA is asking BTOP grantees to count household broadband subscribers, business subscribers, and users of public access computing facilities. She said it’s very important for grantees to keep track of people who become subscribers. It’s also important for grantees to track numbers of people who complete, and express interest in, training. Breeden told the audience that the NTIA for as much information as possible across the entire continuum of participants. The data will help to explain the story of the people who will continue to do this work long after BTOP is over.

Breeden told the audience that the NTIA also plans to provide more clarification on the definitions of users, subscribers, and adopters in July. She said that the NTIA is very interested in understanding the paths that people take towards becoming broadband adopters. Breeden reassured grantees that their investment in training and outreach is also important.

The Continuum

On one side of the broadband adoption continuum, Breeden explained that there are people who are afraid of the Internet. These individuals have not had success learning how to use the Internet.  On another side, there are people who use public access computer centers. These people have a Facebook page, a Gmail account – they are using broadband.

Then there are those who are, and are not, household broadband Internet subscribers. Some may be connecting to the Internet for free at the beginning, but they eventually move toward becoming a customer of broadband Internet service providers.

Q&A

Here are a few questions asked by audience members, followed by summary responses by Laura Breeden:

Q: If a person lives next door to a computer center and can get a wireless signal in their home, does that person count as a subscriber?

A: No. The individual is not a subscriber if he/she is not paying for it. The person is a user.

Q: If somebody is not paying for a broadband connection, but paying for Luminosity, a monthly service that you can get online, does that person count as a subscriber?

A: NTIA needs to look into this.

User, adopter, subscriber . . . The NTIA is looking to collect more of these stories in order to help them define these terms.