Many Americans still do not have broadband at home, and some Americans have turned to mobile devices as their primary gateway to the internet, according to recent Pew Research Center surveys. In a blog, Pew questions whether smartphones are an adequate substitute, since those who depend on their smartphones to go online encounter constraints with data caps and small screens, and the device is not their “go to” tool for personal learning at home.
Instead, those with smartphones but not home broadband rely on a kind of “workaround ecosystem” that is a combination of using their mobile devices along with other resources such as computers and WiFi available at public libraries.
Some 13 percent of U.S. adults are those smartphone-only internet users – specifically meaning they own a smartphone but do not have a home broadband subscription, according to Pew’s data from 2015. This group is more likely to be younger, lower-income, less educated, or black or Hispanic – the same groups that also have lower rates of home broadband adoption, suggesting that some are forgoing high-speed internet service and depending on their phones instead.
More information and charts are available in the blog here.
