Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mobile and Latino Empowerment

Mobile broadband is connecting America's Hispanic community in empowering new ways, resulting in greater economic, educational, health, and civic opportunities for Latinos.

In fact, a recent report by the Hispanic Institute and Mobile Future reveals that the 50.5 million Hispanics living in the U.S. today are increasingly turning primarily to mobile broadband rather than wired connections as their main on-ramp to the Internet.

The report, "Hispanic Broadband Access: Making the Most of the Mobile, Connected Future," shows 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 percent of Hispanics ages 18-29 own cell phones; 70 percent have laptops, more than 51 percent have smartphones, and almost 20 percent have tablets.

These astonishing technology adoption rates by Hispanics are driving equally rapid uptake in the use of mobile broadband for promoting education, health care, access to financial service and civic engagement. And during this presidential election year, mobile technologies are offering the Hispanic community a bullhorn for civic engagement. (Source: Hispanic Trending)