Thursday, July 3, 2008
You Can Have My 28.8 Kbps Penril When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands
Dial-up users don’t like broadband?
Obviously, that’s why they’re dial-up users.
An estimated 10 percent of Americans are surfing the net via dial-up connections, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (PDF), most of them by choice. And 62 percent of dial-up users reported no interest whatsoever in upgrading to broadband.
Price was obviously an issue for some (about a third) and access an issue for others (24 percent), but 19 percent said that nothing can convince them to get broadband. Which means broadband growth in the states may be nearing a plateau. “… Solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so far,” said John Horrigan, the study’s author. “It’s going to have to be a process of getting people more engaged with information technology and demonstrating to people that it’s worth it for them to make the investment of time and money.”
And until then, the percentage of adult Americans with home broadband connections will continue to hover around 55 percent.
