Broadband adoption, benefits on the rise

Home broadband adoption increased more than six-fold between 2001 and 2008, and while gaps in adoption still exist, gaps in valuation no longer do, according to a study released today by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA). The report found that with $32 billion gains in 2008, consumers received more than $30 billion in benefits annually from using broadband at home. According to the study, approximately 66.6 million households used broadband in 2008, up from 10.4 million in 2001. Of these, the number of dial-up users has decreased from 44.2 million households in 2001 to 10.5 million in 2008, and households with no access at all fell from 53.6 million in 2001 to 39.7 million last year.