Percentage of Iowa Households with Internet Access

January 6, 2011

In addition to the excellent information available on the State Library's State Data Center Web site, John Ridgway of the Iowa Utilities Board suggests that you check out http://connectiowa.org/  Click on "Iowa's Broadband Planning Report" for a comprehensive report, released in August 2010, on all aspects of broadband internet service in Iowa.  Here's an excerpt from the report:  "The Connect Iowa survey data shows that as of April 2010, approximately two-thirds (66%) of Iowa residents have a broadband connection in the home, which implies an adoption gap for the state of Iowa of 34% of households, in line with the national adoption gap measured by the FCC.2 On the supply side, according to Connect Iowa broadband inventory estimates, 95.36% of all Iowa households have terrestrial, fixed broadband service available at the basic speeds of 768 Kbps download/200 Kbps upload, and 99.37% of households have fixed or mobile broadband service available at this basic level.3

This implies that approximately 30% of Iowa households have basic broadband available but, for various reasons, are choosing not to subscribe to the service in their home. Of the 34% of Iowans without a home broadband connection, 45% report a lack of interest in broadband, 31% report a lack of a computer as the primary barrier to broadband, 21% say broadband is too expensive, and 10% report lack of broadband availability at their home.
Connect Iowa survey data also show that 19% of Iowa residents do not own a home computer. This translates to more than 431,000 adults without a home computer, with more than two-thirds of those without a computer saying they do not believe they need one."

And remember when the State Library asked you last year to report information about your library internet speed?  That information is now mapped on the ConnectIowa site (http://connectiowa.org/ ) Launch the interactive map from the Connect Iowa site, click on the "advanced" tab, and then click on "library" under "Iowa Community Anchor Institutions."  It's a bit complicated to get there, but fun to see the map light up with hundreds of pink dots showing public libraries!

Mary Wegner
State Librarian