Survey finds America kicking it into high speed -- but only where available

While the percentage of Americans who have high speed Internet access at home has increased over the past year, one in ten Americans still cannot gain access to high speed networks, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The survey found that ten percent of dial-up users -- and fifteen percent of dial-up users in rural America -- say that in order to log on to high speed networks, the service would first have to become available where they are. As John B. Horrigan, author of the report, noted:

“Economic factors play a large role in why some people don’t have broadband, but about one in ten non-broadband users say that service isn’t available where they live.”

Pew has released previous versions of this report, and the full 2008 survey is available here.

Other interesting findings from the survey are that the percentage of adult Americans with high speed Internet at home now stands at 55%, up from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among home Internet users, 79% have a high speed connection while 15% use dial-up. Though those numbers reflect some growth in high speed access, they still show the technology is nowhere near universal.

Growth was strongest among rural residents, older Americans, and those in households earning $20,000 to $40,000. Some groups, like poorer families and blacks, exhibited little or no growth over the past year. Horrigan added:

“The flat growth in home high-speed adoption for low-income Americans suggests that tightening

Press Release: 55% of adult Americans have home broadband connections (Pew)

Pew study finds high speed internet growth slowed last year (Speed Matters)

Home Broadband Adoption 2008 (Pew)