If everyone who could took full advantage of telecommuting, the reduction in miles driven would save $3.9 billion a year in fuel and the time savings would be equal to 470,000 jobs -- reducing our dependence on foreign oil, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.
(National Technology Readiness Survey 2005/2006)
Policies designed to accelerate the use of broadband could save seniors more than $800 billion by reducing health care costs. These benefits are as substantial as what the federal government is likely to spend on homeland security over the next 25 years, and under the right set of policies, could exceed what the United States currently spends annually for health care for all its citizens.
(Great Expectations: Potential Economic Benefits To The Nation From Accelerated Broadband Deployment To Older Americans And Americans With Disabilities by Robert E. Litan. December 2005)
Overall Internet use among blacks still significantly trails use among whites... 74 percent of White Americans go online compared to 61 percent of African-Americans.
(New York Times. "Blacks Turn to Internet Highway, And Digital Divide Starts to Close" 3/31/06)
About 50 percent of African-Americans and 50 percent of Latinos own home computers, as compared to 75 percent of whites. Forty-one percent of African-Americans, 38 percent of Latinos, but 67 percent of whites, have Internet access at home. Furthermore, Internet growth exhibits minimal increases in penetration, with approximately 25% of households not likely to come online in the foreseeable future.
(Education Technology News. "Digital divide: students with computers at home more likely to complete school" 12/1/05)
62 percent of households with incomes above $150,000 have a broadband connection, while less than 11 percent of households with incomes below $30,000 have a connection.
(Government Accounting Office. Broadband Deployment is Extensive throughout the United States, but It Is Difficult to Assess the Extent of the Deployment Gaps in Rural Areas. May 2006. GAO-06-426)
The broadband penetration rate in urban and suburban households is almost double the rate in rural areas. Though growing, rural Internet penetration has remained roughly 10 percentage points behind the national average. In 2005, 18 percent of rural adults reported a home broadband connection, compared to 31 percent of urban adults. In 2006, 25 percent of rural adults reported a home broadband connection compared to 44 percent of urban adults.
(See John B. Horrigan. Home Broadband Adoption 2006. Pew Internet & American Life Project. May 28, 2006.)
Pew Internet & American Life Project's most recent survey from December 2006 showed the stark differences in Internet usage among various groups in the U.S. More than 80% of people aged 18 to 49 use the Internet, while only 33% of those older than 65 do. And in racial groups, 72% of whites and 69% of English-speaking Hispanics use the Net, while 58% of African-Americans do. Plus, 59% of those with a high school education use the Internet, while 91% of college-educated folks do.
(Building a Nationwide Broadband Network: Speeding Job Growth, by Stephen B. Pociask)
(The $500 Billion Opportunity: The Potential Economic Benefit of Widespread Diffusion of Broadband Internet Access, Robert W. Crandall and Charles L. Jackson)
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