Domesticating Broad Band -- What Really Matters To Consumers
The consumer demand for broadband access is taken for granted - it's assumed that because it's better, faster, and more capable that customers naturally want bandwidth in ever-increasing amounts. The authors wonder if that's entirely true (caveat: the authors are economists in the UK, so it may be affected by differences in culture).
Presently, broadband users are believed to be "early adopters," whose demographics (age, marital status, and income) are similar to the early adopters of cable television. It was also found that households with more than one computer are more like to adopt broadband access, as are households whose residents frequently use the Internet.
Also, users with broadband connection make greater use of high-bandwidth content, use a broader array of services, access a greater number of sites, make more purchases online, and are in generally more extensive in their use of the Internet than low-bandwidth usage.
EN: The authors provided a lot more detail about the differences between the two groups, and they cited a lot of statistics, but I don't see the value in preserving the details of the analysis, nor is the argument a particularly enlightening one: there is a correlation between access speed and the extent to which a person uses the Internet, but I don't think causation can be implied: people who use the internet a lot "want" broadband to accommodate their activity; but people who purchase broadband may also find them making greater use of the Internet because it is more accessible - it's a circular argument.