Study: US broadband adoption levels off

20.03.2012
Adoption of broadband service in the U.S. has levelled off since 2009, and the U.S. government and the tech and broadband industries will need to work more closely together to drive up subscriber numbers, according to a new study.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission found that 65 percent of U.S. residents had broadband at home in 2009, while the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration found 68 percent with broadband in late 2011, , an advocacy group made up of technology CEOs.

More coordination of broadband initiatives is needed, said report author John Horrigan, TechNet's vice president of policy research and a long-time broadband researcher. The FCC has worked with cable broadband subscribers on Connect to Compete, a program targeting low-income U.S. residents , but more effort is needed, he said.

Beyond that program, "there is not much in the way of sustained coordination or (to my knowledge) a mechanism for ongoing coordination between the government and private sector on broadband adoption challenges," he said in an email. "Such a mechanism would be helpful in my view."

Last week, Senator John "Jay" Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, sent a letter asking about broadband adoption efforts to several broadband providers. Rockefeller asked the broadband providers to supply him with data about the reasons U.S. residents do not subscribe.

"As more and more business and personal interactions migrate from over the phone and in person to online, having access to high-speed services is more essential than ever before," he wrote in a letter to Comcast.