"We call it Hi-Fi": Exposing Indian Households to High Speed Broadband Wireless Internet
Venue
ICTD '16, ACM, Ann Arbor, MI, USA (2016) (to appear)
Publication Year
2016
Authors
Nithya Sambasivan, Gulzar Azad, Paul M. Aoki, Saswati Saha Mitra
BibTeX
Abstract
As access to the Internet improves globally, we argue that speed is important for
accelerated and full-fledged exploration of the Internet. We provided high-speed
broadband service plans and Wi-Fi access points to 12 Internet-using Indian
households in Delhi and Lucknow for three months. We sought to understand uptake,
trajectories, behaviours, and developmental impact of the speed of the Internet on
the daily lives of our respondents through a multi-phased study (baseline, in-situ
usage, follow-up). Our findings suggest that high-speed Wi-Fi led to 2-3x increase
in online activity and higher-bandwidth activities; spurred Internet skilling and
instrumental uses online; shifted the time and space of device access; created
social currency; and transformed the construct of Internet for the households.
Ultimately, 8 out of the 12 households switched to high-speed Wi-Fi after the study
concluded. We discuss considerations for policy and infrastructure deployments in
introducing and onboarding new and existing users living with slow speeds to
higher-quality networks
