POLK COUNTY BROADBAND PLAN
Households
Of 702 residential respondents, 80.3 percent reported that they had internet service at home, and 19.7 percent
reported that they had no home service. It was initially expected that the phone survey would reach a larger
proportion of people without home internet service; however, in the final results, 20.1 percent of respondents
to the online survey reported having no internet service at home, while 18.9 percent of respondents to the
phone survey reported having no service. Thus, each survey captured a similar proportion of residents with no
home internet service.
Among 564 respondents with home internet service:
• 92.2 percent had a high speed connection (DSL, cable modem, or fiber).
• 12.1 percent had mobile internet (the technology used for smart phones and tablets).
• 2.5 percent had a dial-up connection.
• 3.5 percent had some other type of connection.
• 1.2 percent indicated under the “other” category that they had a satellite connection.
• 9.6 percent reported having two types of connection (e.g. high speed and mobile), and 0.5 percent reported
having three types of connection.
• 82.4 percent reported having a wireless router (to provide Wi-Fi) in their home.
• 15.2 percent reported that someone in their household had a home business.
• 19.0 percent reported that someone in their household sometimes telecommuted.
• 48.9 percent reported that someone in their household sometimes did business-related work on a home
computer.
The average number of devices that
connect to the internet reported for each
household was 4.5. Respondents expected
to add, on average, 1.5 new devices in the
next year.
Using a 10-point scale to rate the
importance of high speed internet to
members of their households (with 10
being the most important and 1 being
the least important), respondents gave
an average rating of 8.3. 45.5 percent of
respondents gave a rating of 10, and 3.6
percent gave a rating of 1.
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