Ericsson reveals impact of broadband speed on household income

Ericsson, in conjunction with Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology, has released the results of a joint study on the economic effects of broadband access speed on households. As per the study, it was revealed that threshold for the minimum speed upgrade needed to provide a statistically impact on household income.

Other key findings also showed that the average increase in household income for a broadband speed upgrade from 4 to 8 Mbps is US$120 per month in OECD countries. BIC households benefit most by upgrading from 0.5 to 4 Mbps, at US$46 per month

Sebastian Tolstoy, VP  Radio Business development and Strategy, Ericsson, says, Results are in line with our previous study that quantified the impact of broadband speed increases on the gross domestic product of 33 countries, as well as a slew of other studies we reviewed. All indicate that broadband access has a positive effect on the economy. We know that speed matters and that upgrading broadband speed has a positive impact. Now we have shown this quantitatively using large data samples in both OECD and BIC economies, even at the household level.

There are several key sources to this study, including Ericsson Consumer Lab survey data from 2010, covering more than 19,000 households from 8 OECD countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan and the US), as well as Brazil, India and China.