President Bush and challenger U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Massachusetts) may have each proposed building a national broadband network, but good luck to either in trying to sell it: A new joint Harris/CNET.com poll says most Americans online support such a government effort, but aren't exactly agreed on who pays and by how much.
"While both presidential candidates back the idea of universal broadband access," said CNET executive editor Charles Cooper, announcing the poll results, "the challenge will be coming up with a proposal that works for the American people, who have shown here that they are largely opposed to paying for it."
About 78 percent of those responding said it was important for average Americans to get online by any way possible, but they're not yet ready to support a government plan to subsidize broadband extension to rural areas directly, or to low-income citizens. The margin for that question among respondents was 56-44 percent, and over two thirds of the poll respondents said they opposed paying higher access fees to fund broadband expansion in those directions.
"People are in favor of many things, until you put price tags on them," said Legg, Mason, Wood, Walker telecommunications analyst Blair Levin in a statement about the poll results. "Just as most folks in Washington want to have their cake and eat it, too, why should consumers thinking about broadband be any different?"
Other findings by the Harris/CNET poll included 61 percent of respondents concerned about security and privacy issues on broadband lines; 53 percent saying the cost more than the speed matters when picking among Net access alternatives; 63 percent spending the same amount of time watching television while having broadband connections as before they got the connections; and, 63 percent spending more time in cyberspace with broadband than when they had dialup connections.
The Harris/CNET poll was done from among a national cross-section of adults between June 22 and June 30.
