Almost eight million homes in North America have broadband Net access. Less than a third of these have DSL services (2.3 million), with the remainder of users getting access via cable modems, according to a survey by Phoenix-based Kinetic Strategies.

The cable companies added three million customers during 2000, with DSL providers adding 1.4 million subscribers. The fourth quarter of last year was particularly strong, with cable adding one million users and residential DSL gaining an additional 553,000 users.

By the end of the year, 64 million homes, or 59 per cent of households in the US and Canada, were capable of receiving the cable modem service.

Analysts believe around half of US homes are still unable to get DSL services (with DSL users do not have to share lines with others, as is the case with cable, which can slow things down). They are either too far from their main DSL office, or behind the digital loop carrier. ®

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