Broadband booming in US

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 08 July 2007 22:00

Opinion and Analysis

The latest report from Pew Internet and American Life shows that broadband usage is booming in the US with 70% of individuals who use the Net at home on a high-speed Internet connection.

Pew’s latest 14-page PDF report on “Home Broadband Adoption 2007”, which is as always freely downloadable from Pew’s website , shows that broadband usage is going ballistic in the US.

Pew’s survey was of 2,200 adult American citizens conducted during February and March of 2007, ensuring up-to-date results were obtained.

Almost half of all of US adults – 47% to be precise – now enjoy a broadband connection in their homes, up 5% from the same time last year. Pew says that of those who have the Internet connected in their homes, 70% are using broadband while 23% are still persisting with a slow dial-up connection.

Although rural use of broadband is still far lower than that in metropolitan cities, 31% of rural users now have a broadband connection, while 60% of rural users
“use the Internet from any location”, which we presume to mean any location they can get access to broadband of some kind, be it wired or wireless.

Pew have also made special note of the use of broadband by African-Americans, noting that 40% now have a broadband connection at home, up by 9% over the same period in 2006, and almost triple the early 2005 figure of only 14% of African Americans with a broadband Net connection.

Interestingly, however, despite strong broadband growth between 2005 and 2006, and better figures for broadband usage and adoption in 2007 so far, Pew reports that while the use of broadband has continued growing, it grew at a slower rate than seen for several years.

Pew give the example that in 2005 to 2006, broadband adoption grew by 40% year-on-year. However Pew report that from 2006 to 2007, broadband use by all US adults grew, as reported in the 3rd paragraph above, from 42% to 47%, meaning only a 12% year-on-year growth rate which is a significant drop.

That said, there’s plenty of life left yet in the world of broadband, with ever faster speeds to come in the US, Europe and Australia over the next few years as these countries and areas seek to catch up with countries in South East Asia, where, for example, South Koreans are used to massively fast broadband speeds of 100Mbps thanks to a fibre network.

In comparison, ADSL 2+ tops out at a theoretical maximum of 24Mbps, said to truly only be available at a real ‘up-to’ speed of 20Mbps, with slower speeds still actually experienced.

As faster broadband speeds become available, coupled with Web 2.0 (and better) services that can more effectively take advantage of faster broadband, along with ever more digital media, both legal and illegal, being downloaded from the Internet, there’s no question that broadband adoption will continue booming for several years to come.

The question for consumers won’t just be ‘Got Milk?’… but it will be ‘Got Broadband?”, with ever increasingly the answer being “Yes” to whoever you ask – most likely to both questions!