Half of US Web Users Now on Broadband -- Report
116676
More than half of all US residential Internet users reached the Web via fast broadband connections in July, outpacing use of slower, dial-up connections for the first time
316271
Some US computer users vastly under-estimate the dangers of going online, a survey shows.
82524
By the end of the year, broadband Internet use in the U.S. will cross the 50 percent mark, according to market research firm Parks Associates, with more than 60 million households connecting to the Internet at 200 kilobits per second or faster.
53511
Almost 55 million people in Europe have broadband, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, studies show.
325830
DSL penetration continues to increase and close to half of all broadband users use the technology in the United States, the DSL Forum said Tuesday. From June 2005 to June 2006, 46 million new DSL subscribers were added worldwide.
166018
When it comes to Internet usage, cell phones, and creating Web content Americans are leading the wired pack.
567880
The U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations in the availability and use of high-speed broadband connections, according to a report released today.
28914
(InfoWorld) - The U.S. is lagging behind other industrialized nations in the availability and use of high-speed broadband connections according to a report released today by the Washington-based Communications Workers of America. The report, based on aggregated data from nearly 80,000 broadband users, found that the median real-time download speed in the U.S. is 1.9 Mbps, compared with 61Mbps in Japan, 45Mbps in South Korea, 17Mbps in France, and 7Mbps in Canada. The report is based on data collected through the speed test at SpeedMatters.org, a CWA project launched last September "to help bridge the digital divide and keep America competitive by encouraging the government to adopt national policies to bring about universal, affordable high-speed broadband access for all Americans, no matter where they live." The CWA is a labor union with a membership of more than 700,000 in fields like telecommunications, media, manufacturing, health care, and aviation. According to the report, the U.S. is 16th in the world in deployment and availability of high-speed networks. "Speed defines what is possible on the Internet. Speed determines whether we will have the 21st century networks and communications necessary to grow our economy and jobs," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "It's clear that other nations -- all of our economic competitors, in fact -- have made the decision to promote true high-speed networks. The longer we delay, the more we put our economic growth at risk." The CWA said it supports many of the provisions in the Broadband Data Improvement Act, a bill introduced in May by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). The legislation would require the collection and evaluation of data on broadband deployment, an upgraded definition of "high speed," and grant programs for states and local communities to conduct their own broadband mapping. "The first step in an improved broadband policy is ensuring that we have better data on which to build our efforts," Inouye said at the time. "In a digital age, the world will not wait for us. It is imperative that we get our broadband house in order and our communications policy right. But we cannot manage what we do not measure." The CWA report also ranks individual states based on average Internet download connection speeds. The state with the fastest connection speed is Rhode Island, at 5.011Mbps, followed by Kansas at 4.167Mbps, New Jersey at 3.68Mbps, New York at 3.436Mbps, and Massachusetts at 3.004Mbps. The states ranking at the bottom are Wyoming at 1.246Mbps, Iowa at 1.262Mbps, West Virginia at 1.117Mbps, South Dakota at 0.825Mbps, and Alaska at 0.545 Mbps. That means that it would take 15 seconds to download a 10MB file in Rhode Island and nearly two and a half minutes to download the same file in Alaska, the CWA report found. The voluntary speed test was conducted online at SpeedMatters.org between September 2006 and May 2007. Most of the people who took the test had either a DSL or cable modem connection. Because 30-40 percent of Americans still use a dial-up connection, the median speeds in the report were higher than if dial-up users had also participated, the report said. In May, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, held a hearing on draft legislation to address broadband mapping and data collection in the U.S. Markey said at the time that the current data-collection methods used by the Federal Communications Commission are "inadequate and highly flawed." He said that according to the FCC, a single broadband subscriber in a certain ZIP code area could indicate that the entire ZIP code area has broadband availability, even if the sole subscriber is a business and not a residential consumer. Such interpretations could result in inaccurate measurements of broadband availability and use, Markey said. He also said that the federal Telecommunications Act compels the FCC to assess the nationwide availability of "advanced telecommunications capability," which Congress defined as having "high speed" capability. However, he said, the FCC defined "high speed" in 1999 as meaning 200Kbps. Markey said the draft bill proposes increasing the definition tenfold to 2Mbps. Markey also said that the U.S. lags behind other nations when it comes to cost of broadband access. He said speeds of 50Mbps, which are not available to residential consumers in this country, are available to Japanese consumers for roughly $30 per month. U.S. consumers typically pay $20 for about 1Mbps service and $30 to $40 for about 4Mbps service.
141850
For the first time, a slim majority of US Net users are connecting via broadband. In July, 51 percent of America&#39;s home online population was using broadband connections, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings. Before July, the ...
659434
Americans may look with envy on the super-fast Internet connections available in South Korea, Japan and parts of Europe, but they can take consolation from a new study that concludes that the U.S. makes better overall use of its telecommunications.
18356
Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday.
36502
The number of broadband connections in the US has jumped by 38% in a year, according to official figures.
345937
About one-third of Internet users in the U.S. have used a wireless connection to surf the Web or check e-mail, according to a survey released Sunday.
190285
More than 100 million Americans, or three out of every five Internet users, viewed video online in July, a new study finds.
465206
The number of US households that use Net phone technology is expected to reach 12 million by 2009, a new study has shown. About 17 percent of all broadband homes in the United States will use Web telephony
96523
More than one of every five UK households has a broadband connection, according to a new study on Monday, indicating that falling prices have made Britain one of the fastest growing markets for high-speed Internet access.
377634
Nielsen//NetRatings is reporting that broadband connections for the first time reached 51 percent of the American online population at home during the month of July, as compared to 38 percent last July. Sixty-three million Web ...