European Wi-Fi usage is growing more than twice as fast as the US. At current growth rates, Europe is poised to pass North America in wireless Internet usage (see Figure 1). Due to popular demand, the FCC has redefined the speed of broadband. Among active Internet users in the US, 88.4% now use broadband.
Figure 1: Wi-Fi Usage by World Region Wireless usage grew by 89% in the second half of 2007, according to a recent survey by iPass. While European wireless users expanded their share of sessions from 31% to 40% over the past year, North America dropped from 59% to 51% worldwide. European wireless usage grew at more than twice the rate of North America annually, with Europe growing at 142% versus North America at 61% over the past year. Other highlights of the iPass study are: cyber cafes lead all venues for wireless access, the US leads all countries for wireless sessions at 51%, with the UK second at 13%, Germany third at 10%, Switzerland fourth at 4%, and the Netherlands fifth at 3%. London leads all cities in total wireless sessions, with Singapore, Tokyo, New York, and Chicago rounding out the top five. US broadband penetration grew to 88.39% in February 2008. Narrowband users connecting at 56Kbps or less now make up 11.61% of active Internet users, down 0.90 percentage points from 12.51% in January 2008 (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Web Connection Speed Trends - Home Users (US) In February 2008, broadband penetration in US homes grew 0.9 percentage points to 88.39%, up from 87.49% in January. This increase of 0.9 points is above the average increase in broadband of 0.67 points per month over the last six months (see Figure 3). At current growth rates, broadband penetration among active Internet users will break 90 percent by April or May of 2008. As of February 2008, 95.3% of US workers connected to the Internet with broadband, up 0.14 percentage points from the 95.16% share in January. At work 4.7% connect at 56Kbps or less (see Figure 4). Figure 4: Web Connection Speed Trends - Work Users (US)
Source: iPass.com Mobile Broadband Index
European Wireless Usage Expands while US Declines
Home Connectivity in the US
Source: Nielsen Online
Broadband Growth Trends in the US
Work Connectivity
Source: Nielsen Online
Further Reading
By website optimization on 31 Mar 2008 AM