Pew Internet Survey

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released their 2009 Home Broadband Adoption Report. This is always an interesting report, especially that Pew has been conducting this research for multiple years. Overall broadband penetration to households has increased to 63%. Which falls in line with the results of a Strategy Analytics' report mentioned at ArsTechnica.

Important figures from the Pew report show those with lower incomes are continuing to adopt broadband Internet access. For household incomes of $20,000 or less the figures jumped from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009. For households with an income between $20,000 and $30,000 the number went from 42% in 2008 to 53% in 2009.

On another note, it appears that the cost of broadband Internet access has increased. Areas with little to no competition have higher prices than locations with multiple access providers. Additionally, the Pew report finds that subscribers are paying more for premium services, those services that offer higher speeds for extra money over the basic fee.

One last point, which is hard to do since there are many interesting pieces of information in these reports. It looks as though African-Americans are for a second year in a row behind in broadband Internet access adoption. It might be time to investigate the reasons for this slow adoption rate.

I would suggest anyone interested in broadband Internet access in the US to read these reports from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The reports are full of information and tidbits.