—In 2009, the home broadband access gap was 19 percentage points. 53 percent of African Americans believed that lack of broadband is a major disadvantage to finding out about jobs and career skills in 2010.

Households with annual incomes above $50,000 are more than twice as likely to have broadband service.

Most (54%) of broadband users say they subscribe to basic broadband service, but nearly one-third (29%) say they subscribe to a premium service at a higher price. When asked what they like most about having a broadband connection, 75% of home high-speed users cited faster access or greater speed. Other uses cited as the feature valued most included the “always on”’ connection (cited by 6% of broadband users), convenience (5%), job-related tasks (4%),downloading files of all types (3%), and finding educational materials (2%).

As a home high-speed connection, wireless has also increased its presence – from next to nothing in 2002 up to 12% of the home broadband market as of May 2008.

This group of “on the go” WiFi users overwhelmingly have broadband at home; some 95% of those who have gone online this way have a high-speed internet connection at home.

Some 45% of those in that income range reported having broadband at home in April 2008. 38% of those living in rural American now have broadband at home, compared with 31% who said this in 2007, or a growth rate of 23% from 2007 to 2008. By comparison, 57% of urban residents have high-speed connections at home now and 60% of suburban residents have such connections.

When asked whether they subscribe to a premium service that gives them a faster broadband connection or have basic service, here is what home broadband users say: 54% of home high-speed users have basic broadband service. 29% of say they have a premium service that offers faster speed. 16% responded that they do not know.

That is up from 47% who had high-speed access at home last year at this time. From March 2006 to March 2007, home broadband adoption grew from 42% of Americans to 47%. With growth in broadband at home, now just 10% of Americans have dial-up internet connections at home. 25% of low-income Americans – those whose household incomes are $20,000 annually or less – reported having broadband at home in April 2008. This compares to the 28% figure reported in March 2007 among those living in households whose annual incomes are $20,000 or less.

to ensure that consumers “in rural, insular, and high-cost areas, should have access to telecommunications and information services . . . at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas” (U.S. Congress 1996, �254 (b) (3)).

Indeed, subsidies for these new competitors have grown from negligible in 2002 to more than $1 billion in 2006 (Martin 2007a, 2007b)

This means the network would be inadequate for both rural public safety agencies and communities that are not served by commercial broadband. (Public Safety Spectrum Trust 2008)