Because communities of color and low-income groups are much more dependent on wireless networks and less likely to have access to wired broadband at home, it is extremely important for as many of the same rules as possible to apply to wireless and wired networks so that the already-too-large “digital divide” does not become even wider.
AT&T, Inc. is seeking government approval to purchase one of its major competitors, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA. This combination could negatively impact competition, consumer choice, and consumers’ pocketbooks. If AT&T is allowed to purchase T-Mobile, this will result in nearly 80% of the wireless market being dominated by two wireless carriers – AT&T and Verizon. Moreover, the wireless market is subject to no regulatory regime, thus if AT&T or Verizon were to engage in anti-competitive, anti-consumer behavior, consumers would have little to no recourse.
This report presents state-level estimates of the percentage of adults and children living in households that did not have a landline telephone but did have at least one wireless telephone. National estimates for the 12-month time period from July 2009 through June 2010 indicate that 23.9% of adults and 27.5% of children were living in these wireless-only households. Estimates are also presented for selected U.S. counties and groups of counties, for other household telephone service use categories (e.g., those that had only landlines and those that had landlines yet received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones), and for 12-month time periods since January–December 2007.
Fully 85% of native-born Latinos go online while just half of foreign-born Latinos do so. And when it comes to cell phone use among Latinos, 80% of the native born use one, compared with 72% of the foreign born. Results also reveal that use of a cell phone or the internet among adult Hispanics still significantly lags behind non-Hispanics. Among those ages 18 and older, only 64% of Latinos go online, compared with 78% of non-Latinos. An ethnic gap exists in cell phone use as well--about three-fourths (76%) of adult Latinos use a cell phone, compared with 86% of non-Latinos. These findings are in the "The Latino Digital Divide: The Native Born versus The Foreign Born" report.
