Broadband Growth Slows to a Crawl

Posted on September 25, 2005

A article from TechNewsWorld says that the growth of broadband has slowed to a crawl. The growth reported by Pew from December, 2005 to May, 2005 was just 3%. The Pew survey found 53% use high-speed connections to get online today.

Pew research director John Horrigan tells TechNewsWorld, "The issue is that the remaining pool of dial-up users today is a different demographic category. A couple years back, you had people making the bit-per-buck calculation, where the dial-up wait was costly in time, and prompted them to switch. The existing pool of dial-up users is not accessing as many bits."

It is surprising that growth has slowed with only 53% of Americans using broadband. Obviously, the demographics have something to do with it. There are probably difficulties in showing the huge advantage of broadband and opportunities that are available online to people that are not interested in Internet access whether it is broadband or dial-up. This demographic may not come into broadband until it is a free with your digital cable or satellite TV or some other type of offer motivates them. Broadband may also still not be available in some regions so there is no way these folks can get online through broadband until it is actually offered.