Internet Access Delivers $32 Billion of Benefits to Us

A 2009 study has estimated that actual worth of benefits brought about by broadband Internet access to Americans reached more than $32 billion in 2008. The research, conducted by industry experts Robert Willig, Mark Dutz, and Jonathan Orszag, was aimed at quantifying and scaling the actual usefulness and advantages of fast online connectivity to most regular Internet users. It was based on the observation that almost all important transactions could now be facilitated online.

The $32 billion figure was derived through considering several important factors. It was found that actual valuation imposed by consumers to their broadband services totaled $60 billion. From the figure, actual amount of access costs for the year was deducted, which was $28 billion. The $32 billion figure is obviously significant and enormous.

Findings of the study and the estimate reveals that broadband Internet access is currently considered a basic necessity among US citizens. Many households now consider Internet connection as among the necessary utilities. This is not surprising because as mentioned, almost all important transactions could be facilitated through the Internet. People could now shop, reserve tickets, do research, get entertainment, and do almost anything imaginable online.

What are the basic benefits from Internet access aside from those mentioned? Consumers find the online media beneficial especially when they are transacting for education, work, health care, communication, news, civic affairs, and entertainment. In fact, many companies are now heavily investing to further strengthen their online market foothold. This is because almost all significant businesses are now online, as many consumers now prefer to transact businesses online as well.

The same research has found that adoption of home broadband services has increased to about six times since 2001. In 2008, about 66.6 million households were having regular broadband Internet connection, from just about 10.4 million households in 2001. The drastic rise is very obvious. No other emerging technology has been warmly accepted in American households like broadband Internet access. Dial-up and other inferior Internet access connections were even excluded in the figure.

In line with this, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan has allotted $7.2 billion for further development and improvement of the current broadband Internet infrastructure in the country. The body has entrusted the amount to the US Federal Communications Commission, which is currently developing its massive national broadband strategy. The project is aimed at furthering empowering the government to establish a partnership with private sector in helping deliver better, faster, and more reliable Internet access to more household across the US.

The proponents of the study asserted that the research was able to meet its goals, which was to quantify recent growth in value of broadband Internet access, as seen and perceived by American consumers and users. The study was the first one that dealt with this quantification. The $32 billion estimate for annual Internet access benefits to consumers is expected to further rise in the coming years.

Many analysts and observers note that Internet access and infrastructure in the US is not as developed and as strong as its counterparts in certain countries in Europe. However, because of the fact that Americans are heavy Internet users, market observers believe the US government would not let local Internet infrastructure lag behind. This of course is good news to most American consumers who are into using broadband Internet access for basic transactions.