The US is a generation behind Japan and Korea in high-speed broadband adoption, according to a recent report. U.S. broadband penetration grew by 0.73 percentage points to 53.59% among active Internet users in November. 46.41% of US home users dial into the Internet with "narrowband" connections of 56Kbps or less. The charts below, derived from Nielsen//NetRatings data, show trends in connection speeds to the Internet for United States users.*
In November 2004, most active Internet users connect from home with broadband connections. Among narrowband users, 38.70% use 56Kbps modems, 5.19% use 28/33.3Kbps, and 2.52% use 14.4Kbps modems. In total, 46.41% of home users in the US connect to the Internet at 56Kbps or less (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Web Connection Speed Trends - Home Users (US)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Broadband penetration in the US grew by 0.73 points to 53.59% in November, up from 52.86% in October. This increase is lower than the average increase in broadband of 1.0 point per month over the previous twelve months. Broadband share in the US should exceed 70% by November of 2005 (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Broadband Connection Speed Trend - Home Users (US)
Extrapolated from Nielsen//NetRatings data
Most workers in the US enjoy high-speed connections to the Internet. Most use a high-speed line such as a T1 connection, and share bandwidth between computers connected to an Ethernet network. The speed of each connection decreases as more employees hook up to the LAN. As of November of 2004, of those connected to the Internet, 80.9% of US users at work enjoy a high-speed connection, up 0.57 percentage points from 80.33% in October. 19.1% connect from work at 56Kbps or less (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Web Connection Speed Trends - Work Users (US)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
The U.S. is a generation behind higher speed nations in high-speed broadband adoption, according to a report by Technology Futures, Inc. While the U.S. languishes at 1 to 6MB/s, Japan and Korea are already rolling out next generation 20MB per second speeds.
*Note that Nielsen//NetRatings reports the percentage of active Internet users that use broadband from home, not broadband households. NetRatings uses a panel of 40,000 to 50,000 people with software meters installed on their computers. These meters detect connection speeds. Each month they do an enumeration study to call a number of people to calibrate the panel by adjusting weightings to match the population at large.
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By website optimization on 17 Dec 2004 AM