Blandin on Broadband

I just got the following note:  

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released their Broadband Adoption 2007 report.

The report finds that nearly half (47%) of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a February 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 42% in early 2006 and 30% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 70% have a high-speed connection while 23% use dialup.

The 12% growth rate from 2006 to 2007 represents trails the 40% increase in the 2005 to 2006 timeframe, when many people in the middle-income and older age groups acquired home broadband connections. Those groups continued to show increases in home broadband adoption into early 2007, but at lower rates than in the past.

A point of interest is that this decreased growth is contrary to what The Center for Rural Policy and Development found earlier this year. Here’s info on an interview we did with Executive Director Jack Geller.) We found then:

Acceleration of broadband adoption almost doubled in 2006 compared to years past. Adoption rates have always increased, generally at about six percent; the increase in 2007 was 12 percent. Broadband use in rural Minnesota was 39.7 percent in 2006.

The Center tracked broadband in rural Minnesota. I wonder if the difference is the rural angle, the Minnesota angle, the definition of broadband, or something else.