The Latino population is relying more and more on wireless connectivity for the Internet. It’s a trend that has a multi-billion dollar impact according to a new report.
Mobile Future and the Hispanic Institute co-sponsored a report entitled, “Hispanic Broadband Access: Making the Most of the Mobile, Connected Future.” In a Huffington Post Latino report, Jonathan Spalter, Mobile Future’s chairman, said, “Hispanics are among the most active users of mobile broadband among all demographic groups in the U.S. They also tend to be more geographically mobile than the overall U.S. population and rely more heavily on wireless services generally. Today, 90% of Hispanics ages 18-29 own cell phones; 70% have laptops; more than 51% have smartphones; and almost 20% have tablets.”
Some of the findings of the report (with source citations in parentheses) are:
• Hispanics, especially the young, have enthusiastically embraced mobile broadband (eMarketer Daily, 2012), making them a desirable consumer market for business, a powerful target for political messages and eager users of information related to education, healthcare and more.
• Young Hispanics spend heavily on mobile broadband technology – $17.6 billion on mobile devices and more than $500 million on mobile apps in 2012 (eMarketer Daily, 2012).
• Hispanics are highly mobile, and thus rely more heavily than other groups on wireless devices for a variety of communications needs, including job searches, connections with friends and family, contact with their children’s schools, conducting business and accessing important government information.
• In addition to the high cost of equipment and broadband service at home, the fact that 40% of U.S. Hispanics have emigrated from countries where wireless is more common than landlines partly explains their embrace of mobile communications technology (Lopez & Taylor, 2010).
• Greater access to mobile broadband communications provides a platform for enhanced entrepreneurial activity among Hispanics, a community that already has a strong track record of starting businesses (Fairlie, 2011).
• Hispanics, who on average are 70% more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to suffer from diabetes (The Office of Minority Health, 2012), for example, need greater access to broadband as an efficient path to healthcare services of all types.
