Comcast applauded Rockefeller's focus on broadband adoption, noting that more than 41,000 U.S. families have signed up for US$9.95 service since it launched its Internet Essentials service in mid-2011. "We're still seeing that education, digital literacy, and cultural issues need to be overcome, not just cost," Comcast said in a statement. "We're working on all of these areas, and are introducing program enhancements, including broadening eligibility for the program, making it easier to sign up, and doubling the speed of the service."

With broadband growth slowed significantly, the U.S. government and private groups should consider new programs to encourage adoption, said the TechNet report, released two years after the FCC unveiled a national broadband plan focused on bringing 100 Mbps broadband to a majority of U.S. residents.

The U.S. is risking "second-class status" for its broadband ecosystem unless it focuses more on adoption, Rey Ramsey, TechNet's president and CEO, said in a statement. 

More needs to be done to tackle the problem of slow uptake by low-income and elderly people, Horrigan said. "Past research shows that people do not get broadband because of cost or lack of skills with computers or lack of awareness of what broadband offers them," he said.

As the FCC moves toward revamping its Lifeline and Link-up subsidy programs for low-income U.S. residents to afford telephone service, the agency should not only open those programs to broadband, but also include broadband training "to help people become sustainable adopters," Horrigan said.