When they want to go on the Web, farmers are moving firmly to wireless and satellite connections and leaving behind the traditional terrestrial line. A majority – 51 percent – of farmers who use the Internet say they rely on wireless and satellite Internet access, up 10 percentage points in two years, according to a biennial USDA report. Some 45 percent get access via cable modem, DSL or dial-up, down by 8 points since 2013.
Overall, 73 percent of farmers reported access to a computer and 70 percent said they have Internet access. Producers with higher incomes were more likely to own computers, to use them as part of their business and to have Internet access than operators with lower sales receipts. Crop producers were slightly more likely than livestock farmers to use a computer for business. The USDA gathered data in June for the Farm Computer Usage report.
While farmer ownership of computers and Internet usage is growing rapidly, rates are higher still in urban America. Some 85 percent of households in metropolitan areas have a computer and 75 percent have high-speed Internet service, according to the Census Bureau, based on a 2013 survey. In rural America, 77 percent of households had a computer and 63 percent had high-speed Internet. One of the sharpest differences was that 80 percent of urban households had a hand-held computer, such as a smart phone, compared to 51 percent of rural households.
Nationwide, the most common forms of Internet connection were cable modem, 43 percent, mobile broadband, 33 percent, and DSL, 21 percent.
Rural residents are “three times more likely to be off-line” as city dwellers, the Daily Yonder reported last fall, citing estimates that half of Americans who don’t use the Internet are in rural areas.