Rapid rise in broadband connections
More than 1 in 4 of U.S. households that go online — and more than 1 in 3 in California and other Pacific Coast states — now do so with a broadband connection, according to a report released Wednesday by market research company Gartner Dataquest.
Based on a June survey of 45,000 households, the study found that the rate of broadband Internet use in the United States has nearly tripled since a previous survey in February 2000, with an average monthly growth rate of 9 percent. During the same 28 months, the total of U.S. households that go online by any means — broadband or dial-up — increased by an average 1 percent per month.
Cable remains the dominant broadband technology, increasing its share from 49 percent of broadband households to 54 percent between the two surveys. DSL adoption, however, grew nearly twice as fast, increasing that technology’s share from 19 percent to 34 percent. ISDN, an older technology that served almost a third of all broadband households in the earlier survey, dropped to just 8 percent.
Consumer demand for broadband will lead the tech industry out of its slump.
You’re right. Been saying that for two years, and here I sit in Dallas’ digital ghetto. Can’t get a cable modem, only iDSL is available (that’s always-on ISDN), fixed wireless from ATT failed, no 3G cellular, no 802.11_ co-op (or private frikkin’ enterprise). If I had the time and money, I would fix this for me and my neighbors, then cookie-cutter it all over the nation.
Needless to say, I advise everyone who asks, and plenty who don’t, to go broadband ASAP.