Demand for Fast Net Access Slowing

Sept. 30, 2005 &#151 -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at what one survey says about the demand for high-speed Net connections in the United States. Plus, the U.S. Agriculture Department uses an online game to teach kids about the new "food pyramid" and how to eat healthy.

Do you remember the early days of going online? The high-pitched shrill of the computer's modem as it tries to connect to an online service? The slow pace at which digital information arrived?

The good news is that a majority of Americans have made the switch to faster, always-on, "broadband" Internet connections and have most likely said a blissful "goodbye" to those pioneering days.

A new study by the non-profit Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington, D.C. shows that by May of this year, 53 percent of U.S. homes had access to the Internet via high-speed connections such as cable TV modems or "DSL" lines provided by local telecom companies.

But John Horrigan, director of research for the Pew Internet organization, says that's only a slight jump from the 50 percent of homes with high-speed access back in December 2004. And that measly three percent increase is a far cry from the 20 percent jump in broadband adoption the industry saw over the same period a year ago.

The reason? Simple: Almost every speed-hungy online user has ditched the old modem, says Horrigan.

"Existing broadband users were the early adopters who used to pay for the dial-up wait and they got impatient with it, which is why they switched over to broadband," says Horrigan. "We see a slowing down in broadband growth partly because most of the low-hanging fruit of early adopters have been harvested by broadband providers."

Cable TV service providers and telecom companies have been aggressively marketing their high-speed Net services with new features – digital movies and music, low-cost online phone services – in hopes that more will make the switch. However, Horrigan says that such bells and whistles might not attract the estimated 63 million Americans who still log on with their slow modems.