• by Masha Geller , December 10, 2002

While dial-up Internet connections are still dominant in the U.S., broadband has arrived for significant numbers of consumers. According to the latest comScore data release, 46.0 million (32%) of the 142.7 million U.S. Internet users in October 2002 connected to the Internet via broadband.

comScore Media Metrix data also underscore the degree to which broadband users surf more intensively. While broadband users represented only 32%of the total U.S. Internet population in October, they accounted for 44% of total usage minutes in the month. They also consumed 49% of total pages viewed online and surfed the Internet virtually every day of the month on average versus 18 days for the average dial-up user

With 86% of U.S. work users connecting to the Web via broadband, it stands to reason that several of the site categories with high levels of broadband visitors carry content related to work and work travel, including Shipping, Car Rental, Hotels/Resorts, and Weather. Since broadband provides a speed and quality boost to streaming online audio and video, it's not surprising that Entertainment-Radio, Movie and Multimedia sites also are popular among these visitors, comScore says.

Previous comScore research has shown that broadband users spend significantly more online than narrowband users. It follows that certain categories of shopping sites, including Jewelry and Home Furnishings, rank prominently as well.

Retail is among the most closely watched sectors during the fourth quarter, and the category attracted 36.6 million (80%) of October's 46.0 million broadband Internet surfers. The sites included in the top 15 Retail rankings (based on unique visitors) for users of broadband and dial-up are similar. One exception is AOL Shopping -- although not among the top 15 retail sites among broadband users, the site drew 5.6 million dial-up users, making it the seventh largest retail site among that audience.

With broadband users proving to be heavier users with greater access to rich content, there is increasing pressure on portals and other Internet companies to offer broadband and adapt content and services appropriately. This is especially true for the top three Internet portals - AOL, MSN and Yahoo!. Yahoo! has the most users connecting via broadband and MSN has the highest percentage of users with broadband. Users of those two portals, respectively, are 13% and 19% more likely than the total Internet population to have broadband; AOL users are 9% less likely to have broadband. While AOL has a lower percentage of users connecting via broadband, it is important to note that its audience leads the group in overall usage intensity.