Digital Nation: Expanding Internet Usage

The new millennium has witnessed a rapid rise in broadband Internet connections in the United States. While the growth rate of total Internet connections at home slowed somewhat after 2001, the number of household broadband connections grew rapidly over the last decade. As of October 2010, the nationwide broadband adoption rate equaled 68.2 percent of households, up from 63.5 percent one year earlier. Overall, the growth of broadband Internet adoption in the United States stems from two sources: (1) supplanting dial-up services in many households, and (2) expanding the market for household Internet connections.