Home Broadband Adoption Surges 40%

As the cost of high-speed Internet access has dropped, U.S. Web users are increasingly adopting broadband at home. That's among the key findings of a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project report, called "Home Broadband Adoption: 2006."

The report found that 84 million Americans connected via broadband in March--up 40 percent from 60 million one year ago. In 2002, just 10 percent of Americans had broadband at home. One reason for the surge appears to be that the price of DSL connections fell. Last December, users who connected via DSL reported average bills of $32 a month, compared to $38 a month in February 2004. (Those who connected through cable modems reported average monthly bills of $41 both last December and two years ago.)

Pew also reported that home broadband use grew especially quickly among middle-income households and African-American homes. Between March 2005 and this March, broadband adoption grew 68 percent among people living in households with incomes between $40,000 and $50,000. Among African-Americans, home broadband use grew by 121 percent.

Between March 2005 and 2006, high-speed adoption surged by 70 percent among those with less than a high-school education--although the total proportion of that group to use broadband is still small, just 17 percent as of March. Broadband adoption by senior citizens also spiked 63 percent; as of March, 13 percent of senior citizens reported connecting via broadband lines at home.

The report was based on two surveys, one of approximately 3,000 people, conducted last December, and one of about 4,000 people, conducted in March.

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