Broadband penetration in US households grew to 57% in March. Some 12 percent of consumers borrow free wireless connections, according to a new survey. Among active Internet users, broadband penetration grew by only 0.43 percentage points over the past month to 88.82%.
Among primary residence US households, broadband penetration grew to 57% in March 2008 (see Figure 1), according to Leichtman Research Group.
Broadband penetration has grown on average 8.25 percentage points each year, but appears to be slowing down in the past year. Note that these figures show broadband growing by 250% since 2003, which is in line with the 300% figure reported by Scarborough Research since 2002. Figure 1: Overall US Broadband Penetration Growth Although it is illegal in some parts of the world, 12% of US and UK respondents to an Accenture survey have logged onto someone
else's unsecured Wi-Fi network. Using other people's Wi-Fi is more common in the US than in the UK. About 1 in 7 piggyback in the US, while 1 in 11 do the same in the UK. The practice is more common among 18 to 34-year olds, with nearly one-third piggybacking onto unsecured networks. Accenture found that people are engaging in unsafe computer practices. Nearly half of all respondents said that they use the same password for all of their accounts, and only a quarter have encrypted files on their computers. US broadband penetration grew to 88.82% in March 2008. Narrowband users connecting at 56Kbps or less now make up 11.18% of active Internet users, down 0.43 percentage points from 11.61% in February 2008 (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Web Connection Speed Trends - Home Users (US) In March 2008, broadband penetration among active Internet users in US homes grew 0.43 percentage points to 88.82%, up from 88.39% in February. This increase of 0.43 points is below the average increase in broadband of 0.61 points per month over the last six months (see Figure 2). At current growth rates, broadband penetration among active Internet users will break 90 percent by May of 2008. Figure 2. Broadband Adoption Growth Trend - Home Users (US) As of March 2008, 95.83% of US workers connected to the Internet with broadband, up 0.53 percentage points from the 95.3% share in February. At work, 4.17% connect at 56Kbps or less (see Figure 3). Figure 3: Web Connection Speed Trends - Work Users (US)Broadband Penetration Grows to 57% in US Homes
Source: Leichtman Research
Survey: 12% of Consumers 'borrow' Free Wireless Connections
Home Connectivity in the US
Source: Nielsen Online
Broadband Growth Trends in the US
Extrapolated from Nielsen Online data
Work Connectivity
Source: Nielsen Online
Further Reading
By website optimization on 21 Apr 2008 AM
I've been looking for USA broadband v narrowband stats for ages! Thanks for collating them.
Do you have a link for the original research by Nielsen Netratings that you used to create Figure 2? I can't find the data on their website or via Google.
By: Jacket 
at June 16, 2008 1:52 PM
I see you are still using only 1 tier to represent all broadband users. I would like to see what statistics you pull when you use the new tier system that the FCC is now using. It is a shame that some providers are still calling connections less than 1 Mbps as broadband.
By: Mark at September 14, 2008 12:14 PM
Jacket,
The original data provided by Netratings is something we receive each month. The data is not freely available.
By: Website Optimization at October 9, 2008 10:49 AM
Mark,
Good idea, I'll see if we can break out broadband speeds in future reports.
By: Website Optimization at October 9, 2008 10:50 AM
All,
In the Leichtman Research data, someone asked about dial-up connections. That was 57% of all households (not just online households) were on broadband at this time, and since not every household is online, about 18% were on dial-up at that time.
By: Website Optimization at October 10, 2008 9:05 AM
Excellent write-ups, and hard to find information! Here in far northern NY state, just across the St. Lawrence River from Ontario Canada, I am estimating the installed dialup population here as around 30%. The cable structure in many areas around here is so bad that you'll often find broadband going a mile or so down the road and stopping. Satellite is even worse: Right here we at least have ADSL, but cable stops about 1/3 of a mile from us and they will not come this far. It's wonderful countryside but technologically it really stinks around here. I even know of 56k users limping along at 26.6 and 33.3 as the best connects they can get, and forget through-put; it's terrible.
IMO, these people deserve recognition and help in pushing the PTB to get off their arses. A fiber cable lies less than 2 miles from our house and they say we won't have FIOS or any fiber for at least a decade.
Thanks for listening, and thanks for being there!
By: Twayne at April 2, 2009 10:58 PM
Increased speeds by 30-90% with our analysis and optimization services.
Increase conversions with adaptive multivariate testing to squeeze more leads out of your exiating traffic. Quickly boost your ROI.
Improve your site's look, usability and accessibility for a more credible and successful website.
