• by Newswire Report , June 19, 2003

Nielsen//NetRatings says that there are 39 million, or 13% of Americans, connecting via broadband in the U.S., the highest number to date. Broadband users at-home grew 49% year-over-year, while narrowband users declined 12% during May 2003, NetRatings found.

"We're seeing the mainstreaming of broadband as more and more modem users migrate to high-speed, especially as broadband costs continue to drop, "said Marc Ryan, director of analysis at Nielsen//NetRatings. "Clearly people are discovering the perks of high-speed access, from streaming video and audio to rich media."

Despite higher growth rates for broadband, there are nearly twice as many narrowband users as broadband users in the U.S. In comparison, last year there were three times as many narrowband users as broadband users. Narrowband users continue to outweigh broadband users with 69.6 million users.

Of narrowband users, the 28.8/33.6Kbps group experienced the biggest decline of 16% to 10.1 million users, while the 56Kbps group had the biggest drop in sheer size of 7.4 million users or a 12% decrease.

According to the data, women outpace men in broadband adoption slightly at 51% versus 48%. There are still more men (20.1 million) who access the Internet via broadband than women (18.9 million), and there continues to be more females (37.8 million) who access the Internet via narrowband than males (31.8 million).

Additionally, seniors ages 65 to 99 continue to be the fastest growing age group using broadband, rising 64% to 1.7 million users. They are, however, still increasing their narrowband usage by 3% year-over-year.

Also, students are the largest set of broadband users in the occupation category with 7.8 million users, growing 51% year-over-year. More than 12.3 million students connect via narrowband.

NetRatings also confirmed that those earning between $75-100k belong to the fastest growing income group adopting high-speed access, increasing 55% to 8.1 million users.

Internet Connection Speed Growth Rates (U.S., At-Home)

+--------------------+---------------+---------------+-----------+ 
| Speed
|  May 02 (000) |  May 03 (000) |  % Change | 
+--------------------+---------------+---------------+-----------+ 
| Broadband Total    |        26,113 |
38,957 |    49.20% | 
| Narrowband Total   |        79,444 |        69,647 |   -12.30% | 
| Modem 14.4K        |         3,966 |         3,454
|   -12.90% | 
| Modem 28.8/33.6K   |        12,014 |        10,118 |   -15.80% | 
| Modem 56K          |        63,465 |        56,075 |
-11.60% | 
+--------------------+---------------+---------------+-----------+ 

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, May 2003