Net users demand wider broadband

Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON: More than half of U.S. Internet users now surf the Web over a high-speed connection as home users signed up in droves for the faster service in the past year, according to a report.

The survey by the Pew Internet and American Life foundation found Americans increasingly willing to pay $10 to $30 more per month to spend less time waiting for Web pages to download.

According to the survey 55 percent of Internet users, or one-third of all adult Americans, have a broadband connection at home or work, the nonprofit group found.

Broadband users can download music, video clips and other bandwidth-intensive content that chokes a traditional dial-up line.

Both President George W. Bush and John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, have called for wider broadband availability in the past several weeks.

Consumer frustration has largely been responsible for the jump, the survey's author, John Horrigan, said.

"People do more things online the longer they have been Internet users, and the additional waiting sours them on dial-up," Horrigan said. "Paying more for broadband thus has more big efficiency payoffs for many dial-up users."

Broadband growth was especially strong outside the office -- 24 percent of those surveyed said they had broadband access at home, more than double the figure recorded a year ago.

Though most home broadband users connect through their cable television company, DSL service offered by telephone companies was largely responsible for the growth in home service, the report said.

DSL, short for digital subscriber line, now accounts for 42 percent of the home broadband market, up from 28 percent in March 2003, the survey found.

The Pew group surveyed 2,204 Americans in February. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

© Reuters