Barriers to Broadband Adoption

New York Law School's Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute focuses on older Americans and people with disabilities and four sectors -- health, energy, education, and government -- that stand to benefit greatly from more robust utilization of broadband but, for the reasons discussed herein, face a number of barriers to further adoption of broadband and broadband-enabled technologies. For senior citizens, a general lack of adequate education and training are key contributors to a relatively low broadband adoption rate; For people with disabilities, widespread negative perceptions regarding the accessibility of broadband impedes further adoption and use of this technology; In the telemedicine sector, a number of outdated legal and policy frameworks hinder more robust adoption and use of broadband-enabled telemedicine services by patients and healthcare providers; In the energy arena, the highly regulated and conservative nature of many energy utilities challenges the dynamic nature of broadband and the ecosystem of innovation that it fosters; In the education space, lack of targeted funding and inadequate training impede further adoption and usage of broadband and broadband-enabled educational tools in schools across the country; and For government entities, institutional inertia and a lack of cross-government collaboration regarding best practices has slowed the effective integration of broadband into many government processes.