Monthly Archives: June 2017

Seniors and Broadband

A recent poll from the Pew Research Center shows that for the first time that more than half of Americans over 65 have a landline broadband connection in their homes. This is a milestone for the industry and is significantly higher than the last time Pew asked the same questions in 2013.

Since the inception of the web seniors have always had a significantly lower broadband adoption rate than other age groups, but this survey shows that seniors are now starting to close the gap. Part of this shift is probably due to the fact that baby boomers are now joining the senior category and bringing their much higher adoption rate for technology with them. But one also has to think that the benefits of broadband are luring more seniors into buying broadband.

The survey also showed the following:

  • 67% of seniors say that they use the Internet.
  • 42% of seniors now own a smartphone, which is triple the percentage from 2013.
  • Of those that use the Internet, 17% go on-line once a day, 51% use the Internet several times per day and 8% say they are on the Internet almost constantly.
  • A much smaller percentage of seniors use social media, but the ones that do use it often. For example, 70% of seniors on Facebook use the service daily.
  • 25% of seniors that go on-line play on-line video games.
  • 58% of seniors think that technology has a positive effect on society. Only 4% think technology is mostly negative.

The survey also looked deeper into the reasons why seniors say they don’t use broadband and found the following:

  • Only 26% of seniors say that they are very confident when using electronic devices. The percentages are far higher for younger age groups.
  • 73% of seniors say they need help using a new electronic device.
  • Disabled seniors seem to use broadband at a much lower rate than those with no disabilities.

ISPs have obviously always had challenges in selling to seniors. But I clients that have done very well selling to seniors and following are a few things I have seen work.

I have one client that has been holding weekly computer training classes for the public for nearly 15 years. Their free classes are filled every week mostly by seniors. They teach what people really want to learn – how to use Facebook, how to deal with emails and spam, how to save and send pictures, etc. They have a much higher broadband penetration rate with seniors than is shown by this survey and they credit their training classes for making seniors comfortable using broadband.

I have another client that sends an employee to sit with every new broadband customers to help them set up everything they want to use. They say they will often spend up to four hours with a new senior customer and will set up their Facebook and email accounts, show them how to use bookmarks, show them how to search for information, etc. And this ISP will take calls from these new customers to answer all of their questions and will make return home visits if needed. They say that word of mouth has emboldened a lot of seniors to buy broadband and because of their continued support they can’t recall any senior who dropped broadband. They think this up-front assistance is time and money well spent because they say that their seniors become the most loyal customers who also have the best track record of paying the monthly broadband bills on time.

I have another client that also holds training classes, but rather than have potential customers come to their office, they have placed computers in several places in the community where seniors gather daily – places like a senior community center, an indoor community swimming pool and gym, and in a popular restaurant that allowed them to put a few computers in a back room. This telco sends somebody to these locations a few times a week to answer questions and to show people how to use the Internet. They say this program has led to significant sales of broadband to seniors.

But I also have a lot of clients that have not done anything specific to help seniors and then see poor broadband adoption rates. My advice to them has always been to look at the efforts to sell to seniors as just another part of the sales process. As this survey shows, it is fear of technology that is still the primary reason why many seniors don’t buy broadband. Any ISP that makes a genuine effort to allay these fears will reap the benefits of increased broadband sales and an appreciative new customer base.

The Proliferation of Small Wireless Devices

Cities nationwide are suddenly seeing requests to place small wireless devices in public rights-of-way. Most of the requests today are for placing mini-cell sites, but in the near future there are going to be a plethora of other outdoor wireless devices to support 5G broadband and wireless loops.

Many cities are struggling with how to handle these requests. I think that once they understand the potential magnitude of future requests it’s going to become even more of an issue. Following are some of the many issues involved with outdoor wireless electronics placement:

Franchising. One of the tools cities have always used to control and monitor placement of things in rights-of-way is through the use of franchise agreements that specifically spell out how any given company can use the right-of-way. But FCC rules have prohibited franchises for cellular carriers for decades – rules that were first put into place to promote the expansion of cellular networks. Those rules made some sense when cities only had to deal with large cellular towers that are largely located outside of rights-of-way, but make a lot less sense for devices that can be placed anywhere in a city.

Aesthetics. These new wireless devices are not going to be placed in the traditional locations like large cellular towers, water towers and rooftops of buildings. Instead the wireless providers will want to place them on existing telephone poles and light poles. Further, I’ve heard of requests for the placement of new, taller poles as tall as 100 feet that would be used just for the wireless network.

The devices that will be used are going to vary widely in size and requirements, making it difficult to come up with any one-size-fits-all new rules. The devices might vary in sizes ranging from a laptop computer up to a small dorm refrigerator. And some of the devices will be accompanied by support struts and other devices that together make for a fairly large new structure. The vast majority of these devices will need an external power feed (some might be solar powered) and many are also going to need a fiber feed.

It’s also expected that 5G devices are going to want relatively clear line-of-sight and this means a lot more tree-trimming, including trimming at greater heights than in the past. I can picture this creating big issues in residential neighborhoods.

Proliferation. I doubt that any city is prepared for the possible proliferation of wireless devices. Not only are there four major cellular companies, but these devices are going to be deployed by the cable companies that are now entering the cellular market along with a host of ISPs that want to deliver wireless broadband. There will also be significant demand for placement for connecting private networks as well as for the uses by the cities themselves. I remember towns fifty years ago that had unsightly masses of telephone wires. Over the next decade or two it’s likely that we will see wireless devices everywhere.

Safety. One of the concerns for any city and the existing utilities that use poles and rights-of-way is the safety of technicians that work on poles. Adding devices to poles always makes it more complicated to work on a pole. But adding live electric feeds to devices (something that is fairly rare on poles) and new fiber wires and the complexity increases again – particularly for technicians trying to make repairs in storm conditions.

Possible Preemption of City Rights. Even after considering all these issues, it’s possible that the choice might soon be moot for cities. At the federal level both the FCC and Congress are contemplating rules that make it easier for cellular companies to deploy these devices. There are also numerous bills currently in state legislatures that are looking at the same issues. In both cases most of the rules being contemplated would override local control and would institute the same rules everywhere. And as you might imagine, almost all of these laws are being pushed by the big cellular companies and largely favor them over cities.

It’s easy to understand why the cellular companies want universal rules. It would be costly for them to negotiate this city by city. But local control of rights-of-way has been an effective tool for cities to use to control haphazard proliferation of devices in their rights-of-way. This is gearing up to be a big battle – and one that will probably come to a head fairly soon.