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Yanks Don’t Like Broadband, Seem To Be The Only Ones
In some interesting broadband news today it seems as though a surprising proportion of Americans aren't interested in updating their dial-up connection, or indeed having access to the World Wide Web at all. A survey by research firm Pew Internet & American Life Project polled 4,245 people who don't currently have a broadband connection, and found that a third of those with no way to get online have no interest in doing so at all. 9% of people claimed it's 'too difficult', 7% reckon it's a waste of time and 7% are too busy, while only 13% don't have access because it's not available in their area. For those still using dial-up, 35% cite the price of broadband as the reason for not upgrading and 19% say that nothing would make them do so. This doesn't exactly sit well with the new President's plans for $6bn worth of funding to provide under-served areas with connections and contrasts somewhat with other global news regarding the current internet population. Stat-tracker Comscore announced that world internet usage topped one billion in December last year, or around 15% of the global population, and these figures don't include access from public computers. Over in Blighty it has been confirmed that a new Digital UK report, which isn't due to be finalised until late Spring, will include a recommendation that every British citizen has a legal right to access broadband internet, thereby upgrading the current rule that ISPs must offer a minimum of 28.8kb/s. - Paul Lester [TheRegister] & [TechDigest] & [TechRadar] internet broadband online
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