Cheap PCs helping to narrow digital divide
By Gwendolyn Mariano
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 13, 2001, 11:45 a.m. PT
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5122471.html?tag=prntfr

Low-income individuals surfing the Web at home form the fastest growing
group on the Internet, according to a new report
released Tuesday.

The Nielsen/NetRatings report showed that in the United States, people who
earned less than $25,000 a year accounted for
6.3 million of the total Internet population in February 2001. That compares
with 4.3 million during the same month last year,
an increase of 46 percent.

The report showed that the Internet continues to attract a mainstream
audience and that the so-called digital divide is starting
to narrow with the availability of low-cost personal computers and free
Internet service providers.

"If you think how products are introduced in the economy, it starts with the
early adopter set," said T.S. Kelly, director of
Internet media strategies at NetRatings. "What we're seeing here is the
Internet or access to the Internet reaching yet another
stage of development."

Kelly projected that the Internet universe will continue to grow despite
some free ISPs, such as Freewwweb, ceasing
operations and some online companies charging for formerly free services.
Earlier this month, BlueLight.com limited
customers' free Web access and began charging a fee for additional usage.

Kelly said that with the changes in the free ISP sector the growth of active
Net surfers may slow, but it would not necessarily
decline into negative percentages.

"We've been seeing healthy growth with those who cannot afford or are not so
much interested in (paying for) Internet access,"
he added.

Kelly said that early Net adopters are typically 18- to 49-year-old males
with high incomes and advanced educations who are
willing to pay for personal computers and monthly ISP charges. But as the
costs of PCs and Web access drop, "the doors
have opened for lower-income groups to tap into the Web."

The report also said that the upper-middle-class income group--people who
earn between $50,000 and $74,999--increased 42
percent in the past year, making it the largest segment of the online
population. In February 2001, there were 30.4 million
upper-middle-class people accessing the Web at home, compared with 21.4
million in the same month last year.

The lowest segment of the Internet population has a household income of
$150,000 to $999,999. In February of this year, 4.8
million people in that income range accessed the Net, an increase of 28
percent from 3.75 million in the same month of last
year.

Kelly said that although some free ISPs have shut down, he doesn't think all
such services will disappear "because the number
of people they're attracting has been enormous."

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