Consumers receive more than $30 billion of net benefits from the use of fixedline broadband at home, with broadband increasingly being perceived as a necessity
- Our estimates of the net consumer benefits from home broadband, based on sophisticated and reliable econometrics estimates from transactions data, are on the order of $32 billion per year, up significantly from the estimated roughly $20 billion in consumer benefits from home broadband use in 2005.
- This increased valuation corresponds to a changing perception over time by users, with broadband increasingly seen as a necessity for which users will find a way to pay.
- For example, people appear unwilling to cut their broadband even when they lose their jobs, based on their need for connectivity as reflected in the significant jump upwards in use of job board and career information sites during the economic downturn.
