"We call it Hi-Fi": Exposing Indian Households to High Speed Broadband Wireless Internet

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

• Human-Computer Interaction and Visualization

• Networking