Broadband Internet is undervalued $32 billion, study says

Think you overpay for broadband access? According to a new study, it's quite the opposite.

Broadband Internet access delivered more than $32 billion in benefits to American consumers last year, according to a new study released Tuesday, revealing that a broadband connection is considered a necessity by many Americans.

The study's authors, who presented their findings at Internet Innovation Alliance Academy on Capitol Hill, derived the $32 billion figure by researching how much consumers value their broadband access -- totaling $60 billion -- and then subtracted how much Internet users paid per year for their access, which amounted to $28 billion.

In other words: customers value broadband a lot more than they're actually paying.

(The study also found that home broadband adoption increased more than sixfold since 2001: 66.6 million households used broadband in 2008, compared with only 10.4 million families seven years ago.)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan stipulated $7.2 billion for broadband development and entrusted the FCC to develop a national broadband plan. According to the article, the researchers hope that a national broadband strategy will empower the government to partner with the private sector to help deliver Internet access to every corner of the country.

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