It appears the penetration of home broadband has peaked in the United States report the Pew Research Centre.
Since the organisation’s last home broadband survey in 2013, the proportion of adults living in a household with a fixed high speed connection has fallen from 70% to 67% while those relying solely on a smartphone connection has gone from 8 to 13 percent.
This also coincides with 15% of respondents reporting that they’ve cancelled cable or satellite TV subscriptions as they can now get the content they want from the internet. It’s clear the shift away from broadcast is now firmly on.
One of the jarring notes from the Pew survey is the digital divide developing with nearly half those without a home broadband connection citing cost, either of the Internet service or that of a computer, being the main barrier to going online.
According to Pew, Americans are acutely aware of the problems of not having broadband with two-thirds of those surveyed believing not having a home high-speed internet connection is a major disadvantage to finding a job.
The Pew survey shows how attitudes to Internet accessibility is changing, increasingly we’re seeing it as an essential like power and the telephone. Increasingly access to broadband is going to be a political issue.