Three in ten wired homes in the US access the Net using a broadband connection.

So says a survey by Dataquest, which found that over the last two-and-a-half years the rate of broadband Net use in the US has nearly tripled. This works out at a growth rate of 9 per cent a month at a time when the total number of US households accessing the Net - either by broadband or dial-up - grew by just 1 per cent a month.

The report, US Mass Market Loves Broadband More Than Ever, found that high speed Net access is a growth market despite the economic slowdown and the relatively high cost of DSL and cable modem services.

Furthermore, there is still untapped demand for broadband in areas currently not being served by DSL or cable. As of June 2002, cable modem and DSL together represented almost 90 per cent of the domestic broadband access market in the US, up from 70 percent of broadband access in 2000. This, claims the report, is due to a decline in use for ISDN services.

Although DSL is gaining in popularity, cable modem services account for more than half of broadband services in the US, said the report. ®

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