A probit model of household broadband service subscription intentions: A regional analysis

Much recent debate concerns the effect of carrier roll-out on access to networked services. However, whether particular groups within passed communities are unable or unwilling to subscribe to networked services is also an important policy issue. This paper sets out to identify households that are less likely to subscribe and examines whether there exists a systematic link between subscription interest and commonly accepted measures of social disadvantage. A probit regression is estimated on stated-preference subscription data obtained from a national survey of one thousand households. The results show that the potential exists for an information poor class to develop.