Study: More American Households Have Broadband Connections

July 3, 2007 — -- With high-speed Internet ubiquitous in the nation's libraries, coffee shops and workplaces, it seems that the American home is finally starting to catch up: Nearly half of U.S. households have a broadband connection, according to a study released today.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project of 2,200 adults, 47 percent of American households now have broadband connections, an increase from 42 percent in 2006 and 30 percent in 2005. More than half of these connections -- 52 percent -- are concentrated in urban areas, while only 31 percent are in rural ones.

Dr. John Horrigan, the associate director of the Pew Internet Project, said the momentum is beginning to decline from where it was two years ago.

"We had a strong growth rate in the prior year of 2005 to 2006," Horrigan told ABC News. "Although there's an increase this year, it's still not as big as two years ago."

The study reported that households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 experienced a three percentage point increase since last year in the adoption of home broadband. More senior citizens also adopted home broadband this year, up two percentage points, and now 40 percent of people between the ages of 50 and 64 have high-speed home connections.

Historically, high-speed Internet adoption has been concentrated among the younger, more educated, wealthier classes. As broadband use in these areas remains high, according to the survey, other groups experienced growth in home broadband adoption including African-Americans, rural Americans and low-income households.

"Rural America is a challenging and interesting cohort to look at," Horrigan said. "There have been efforts to better deploy broadband."

But there are still problems as far as infrastructure goes in rural areas. He continued: "Rural Americans with dial-up are gaining more experience and the more you do online, the more you expect as far as speed and performance goes."

In fact, the overall main reason for the increase in all subcategories --rural America, African-Americans and low-income households -- is the growing home use of the Internet in these areas, in both dial-up and broadband.

"When you look at the low-income households, certainly marketing has something to do with it," Horrigan said. "But as with rural adopters, another year being on the Internet drives people from dial-up to broadband.…The broadband adoption pattern tends to go from people using dial-up, gaining more experience and going to broadband."

Currently, of Americans using the Internet, 70 percent of Americans have home broadband connections and only 23 percent use dial-up.

Horrigan said that home broadband use will continue to rise next year.

"How fast it is, I'm not sure, he said. "I'm not going to get into the crystal ball game, but we've seen steady growth over time. We can expect to see broadband adoption continue to increase."