American women in communities with ample broadband access lose less time waiting for services, reducing time poverty

A 14-year data analysis finds that a 10% rise in broadband adoption in a community corresponds to a 1.19% cut in waiting time, saving the average person about 1.5 hours a year. With 24 million Americans still lacking broadband, the researchers estimate a nationwide 10% adoption bump could reclaim 36.5 million hours annually, worth roughly $1.2 billion at May 2025's mean hourly wage.

The benefit skews toward women, who researchers say carry more caregiving and household waiting burdens and see an 11% decline in wait time for the same adoption increase, about 14.4 million hours saved. But the gains concentrate among middle-income people; wait times for low-income individuals stayed long regardless of connectivity, which the authors attribute to cost and digital-skill barriers they did not directly study.

The researchers, public policy scholars, argue broadband alone will not close the gap without pairing it with affordability programs and digital literacy training.

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