Americans Choose Higher Speeds

Broadband consumers are heavy Internet users compared to their narrowband counterparts. In November, with an average of 34 hours and 50 minutes per person, they spent 33 percent more time online than narrowband users, who had an average of 26 hours and 13 minutes per person. Among all time spent online during the month, 82 percent could be attributed to those connecting via broadband. In addition, broadband users viewed over twice as many Web pages as narrowband users, with averages of 1,574 and 681 Web pages per person, respectively.

Survey results like these prove the demand for high speed Internet - but they don't tell the other half of the story. Most notably, the survey doesn't tell us who the 78% of American Internet users are that have high speed Internet, why 22% of American Internet users still suffer with dial-up and why others are not connected at all. There is no mention of the geographic and economic boundaries that are causing our country's digital divide to grow.

That more people have access to high speed Internet is great news. Now we must take the steps to ensure that nobody is left behind and that we create truly high speed networks.