NTIA published 18 November 2004 its study on the U.S. broadband use. The study is based on the Current Population Survey, with a sample of 57,000 households. Highlights of the study include:

Access:

- In October 2003, 54.6 percent of the U.S. households had Internet connections.

- In October 2003, one fifth of the US households had high-speed connections (defined in the U.S. as connections with at least 200 kbps in at least one direction).

- Households with DSL access almost tripled between September 2001 and October 2003.

- The early leadership in cable is eroding rapidly, as DSL is gaining market share.

Usage:

- 66.1 percent of broadband users use the Internet daily, compared to 51.2 percent of dial-up users.

- People with no Internet access at home represent 14.2 percent of Internet users; from Internet users without home connection, 38.2 percent use the Internet daily.

- Broadband users engage in all online activities more frequently than dial-up users, the biggest usage differences are in multimedia / entertainment use, purchasing of products and services, and online banking.

- Broadband users engage in more online activities than dial-up users; 22.1 percent of Internet users with broadband at home engage in eight or more activities; for dial-up user the share is 10.6 percent.

- 41.3 percent of the total U.S. population still does not use the Internet; almost one quarter of non-internet users live in a household that has an Internet connection.

- The distribution of high-speed Internet usage across demographic and economic categories is similar to dial-up usage, except for the fact that differences across geographic regions remain large. Although there are almost as many Internet households in the rural areas as in the urban areas, broadband had a much lower penetration in the rural areas. In rural areas, 22.1 percent of the households listed “Not Available” as the reason for not using broadband.

The report and the underlying raw survey data are available at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/index.html

Comment:

In October 2003 there were more female than male Internet users. The U.S. Internet access growth seems to be slowing down after it reached 50 percent of households in September 2001, with only 4 percent growth in the number of Internet households in two years. Broadband, however, was still growing rapidly as broadband penetration increased from 9.1 percent to 19.9 percent. In October 2003, the U.S. broadband penetration was behind countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea, and almost exactly the same as in Finland. The Finnish broadband penetration, however, has been advancing at least twice as fast as the U.S. broadband, despite the fact that the PPP corrected broadband prices have been considerably lower in the U.S. than in Finland.

The publication of the report was delayed because of the U.S. elections. During the election campaign, President Bush advocated affordable access to high-speed Internet services for all Americans by 2007. The report shows that only one-in-seven blacks and one-in-eight Hispanics live in a household with broadband access. For U.S. comments, see the Associated Press article at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Wired-Nation.html?ex=1102224502&ei=1&en=07e3547e81024f78. The article quotes Mr. Miller: This is lousy, said Harris Miller, head of the Information Technology Association of America, a leading industry trade group in Washington. We're just not keeping up with our competitors. We're not even keeping up with countries we don't consider competitors. It's not acceptable.