The respected Pew Internet & American Life Project has issued a new report into broadband penetration in the US. Key findings:
– As of March 2006, 42% of all American adults had a high-speed internet connection at home.
– This growth in broadband adoption has been fueled in part by an increase in internet penetration in the past year, from 66% to 73%. Nearly half of these new internet users subscribe to high-speed services at home.
– The 40% increase in home broadband adoption from March 2005 to March 2006 is double the 20% rate of increase that occurred from March 2004 to March 2005.
– 35% of all internet users have posted content to the internet.
– A “broadband elite” of early adopters that had been the biggest creator of user content has been overtaken by the mainstream.
– User-generated content is driven by young home high-speed users – 51% of “under 30†home broadband users have posted content to the internet compared with36% of home high-speed users older than 30.
Hence the Kim Beasley call for a national Broadband strategy for Australia, the continued significant investment mainstream media companies in online businesses and the challenges for print media.
We need Pew type independent research here to understand the shift which is occurring.