More Frustrated Dialup Users Turn to Broadband

WASHINGTON, April 29 -- Broadband access is increasingly being woven into the work and home lives of Internet users in the US. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 55 percent of American Internet users have access to broadband either at home or in the workplace, and 39 percent of US online users have broadband access at home.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts to explore the social impact of the Internet. It said nearly 60 percent of home broadband users cited impatience with dial-up connections or a desire to download files faster as the reason they switched to broadband. Price of service plays a relatively minor role in the home high-speed adoption decision.

"People do more things online the longer they have been Internet users, and the additional waiting sours them on dial-up," said John B. Horrigan, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project and author of the report, based on a February 2004 survey. "Paying more for broadband thus has big efficiency payoffs for many dial-up users. The extra monthly cost is well worth it for high-speed home users, and this is why they tell us price is not a big factor in their move to broadband.”

The survey also revealed that home broadband adoption is up 60 percent since March 2003, with half of that growth since November 2003. A surge in subscription to DSL high-speed Internet connections, which has more than doubled since March 2003, is largely behind the growth in broadband at home, the report said, and DSL now has a 42 percent share of the home broadband market, up from 28 percent in March 2003.

For the first time, more than half (52 percent) of a key demographic group -- college-educated people age 35 and younger -- have broadband connections at home. Only 10 percent of rural Americans go online from home with high-speed connections, about one-third the rate for non-rural Americans, the report said.

For more information, visit: www.pewinternet.org