The Demographics of Broadband Residential Consumers in a British Local Community: The London Borough of Hillingdon

Abstract

This study empirically examines the socio-economic attributes of the residential (household) consumers of broadband technologies in a local community (the London Borough of Hillingdon) in the UK. Five demographic characteristics to provide insights of broadband adopters and non-adopters were identified from the literature review. These included age, gender, education, income and social class. The data on these variables was collected using a postal survey. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 700 households with a total of 172 responses obtained from the respondents. The findings of this research suggest that the adoption of broadband is reducing if the variable of age is considered. The majority of the adopters are males. Further, the individual adopters are from the higher income segments. The respondents' educational attainment did not have any impact. The sluggish adoption of broadband by the consumers is not only an industry concern, but a government one as well. Therefore this research offers a substantial contribution to all the interested stakeholders including the ISPs and government agencies who may want to differentiate between the adopters and non-adopters.