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New Report Highlights Internet Accessibility Across Montana

A new report released by the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education and The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research regarding distance learning in Montana shows nearly 84 percent of the state’s population, or about 520,000 people, age 18 to 64 have high-speed Internet available where they live.

This information provides the state with the first robust estimate of broadband Internet availability in Montana and highlights the strengths and weaknesses in high-speed Internet coverage and usage.

“I think this showcases that accessibility to online services is high but still not universal,” BBER Director Patrick Barkey said.

There are certain categories of individuals who have markedly lower high-speed Internet availability at their homes. The fraction of American Indian households with high-speed availability in their residences is more than 10 percentage points lower than white households, although a higher fraction of American Indian households said they didn’t know whether they had availability or not.

Lower-income and less-educated households also were more likely to not have high-speed service available. There also is less high-speed Internet access in eastern Montana than in other regions of the state.

“This information provides quantitative proof that while access is widely available, a digital divide still appears for Montana’s lower-income, Native American, and rural populations,” Barkey said.

BBER sampled more than 1,200 households in Montana to obtain the results, including both landline and cell-phone only households. The survey looked at consumer experiences in distance learning, as well as interest in engaging in additional distance learning specifically from the campuses of the Montana University System.

Identified in the survey were the academic program and work force development areas of greatest interest to consumers, the gaps in academic delivery that exist, the barriers to distance learning from the consumer perspective, the preferred type of distance delivery, and the manner and location consumers most often use to access the Internet. The survey can be downloaded from the MUS website at http://mus.edu/online .

BBER monitors economic and business conditions in Montana, providing information to individuals, businesses and government agencies across the state. For more information, visit http://www.bber.umt.edu or call 406-243-5113.

http://news.umt.edu/2010/07/071210bber.aspx

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