2 in 5 Web Users Have Broadband at Home

Two in five Internet users in the U.S now have broadband access at home…In a new report, the Pew Internet and American Life Project placed the adult residential broadband population at 48 million, or one-quarter of all adult Americans. Among college-educated adults age 35 and younger, penetration has reached 52 percent.

DSL was largely responsible for this growth, even though cable modem is still the biggest chunk of the access market…

All of this, of course, is affecting a rapid change in users’ activities online…read this portion of the report. About 40 percent of broadband users get news online, as opposed to about 22 percent of dial-up users.

You can download 10-page PDF report from Pew’s site.

Almost on cue, NYT has a story on why some users still prefer dial-up: some consumers content to pay for a service that is less than optimal, and at times even frustratingly slow, because they say greater speed is not worth the trouble of starting over with a new telecommunications provider and getting a new e-mail address, even if the added cost is small.

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