Telecommunications
Statewide Assessment of Internet Use: 2001 is a research project conducted for the Iowa Department of Economic Development by American Research Associates, a wenger company. The purpose of the research is to provide insight into Iowans’ computer use, their use of dial-up and high-speed Internet services, and their perceived needs as it relates to Internet access and use.
The research includes businesses and households, and also examines differences between Iowa’s urban and rural areas. In the research, urban counties are defined as those counties with a city of 20,000 or more in population and rural counties are those counties without a city of 20,000 or more in population.
Business Customer Highlights:
300 telephone interview surveys were conducted. The participation rate was significantly high with response from more than 90% of all those contacted.
- Overall, 50.7% of Iowa businesses are connected to the Internet.
- Of Iowa businesses connected to the Internet, 71% use a dial-up connection, and 29% use high speed.
- Approximately 34% of the businesses in urban counties use high-speed Internet services, vs. about 18% of businesses in rural counties.
- The top three on-line activities by Iowa businesses are email, research and sending or receiving files. Business with high-speed service report greater frequency in all activities than do those businesses with dial-up service.
- The frequency of on-line activities is about the same for businesses in urban and rural regions. Businesses in rural counties report having been on-line for slightly longer tenure than urban counties.
- Of all businesses surveyed, 39.3% have visited the State of Iowa’s Web site, with the most common information sought being tax-related information, information on legislators and pending legislation, regulatory information, and education information.
- High-speed users rate their Internet service higher on value for the money (86.9% satisfied), even though they pay more for the service, than do their dial-up user counterparts (66% satisfied).
Household Customer Highlights.
500 Iowa heads of households were interviewed by telephone, for an average length of interview 15 minutes. The household participation rate in the survey was even higher than the businesses, about 95%.
- 66.5% of all Iowa households have a computer in their home, and 60% are connected to the Internet.
- 71.2% of Iowa’s urban households are on-line compared with 42.2% in of those in rural areas.
- In total, 70.8% of all Iowa households are connected to the Internet either at home, elsewhere (usually work) or both.
- Of Iowa households with Internet connections, 79.1% have a dial-up connection, and 20.9% have high-speed service.
- Of households with Internet connections, about 25% in Iowa’s urban regions have high-speed connections at home, vs. about 10% of rural households.
- The average total time on line by all users in a household is seven hours per week. High-speed users spend significantly more time on-line than do dial-up users.
- The most frequent on-line activities are email, surfing the web, accessing news and sending/receiving files.
- Of all Iowa households, 38.6% have visited the State of Iowa’s Web site, most commonly for job-related information, DNR information, information on legislation, tourism information, and tax forms and information.
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