Broadband adoption passes halfway mark in U.S.
Residential broadband penetration should hit about 55 percent by end of 2007; U.K. not far behind.
U.S. residential broadband penetration is expected to exceed 50 percent in 2007--and the U.K. isn't far behind. By the end of 2007, more than 60 million U.S. households will be connected--around 55 percent--according to market researcher Parks Associates. During 2006, broadband subscriptions grew by more than 20 percent in the U.S. and by the end of the year around 50 million households had fat pipes.
The U.K. isn't far behind, though, as around 49 percent of households have a broadband connection, according to Point Topic figures from the third quarter of 2006. In Europe there are still large discrepancies in broadband penetration rates that are exacerbating the digital divide. Residential broadband uptake varies from 73 percent in Iceland to 1.4 percent in Moldova. Worldwide, the country with the greatest residential broadband connectivity is South Korea. More than 88 percent of Korean households had a broadband connection by the third quarter of last year.
Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.