Rural Americans Narrow the Broadband Internet Gap

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6:00 am on March 1, 2006 | Category: Web Services, Telecom Services

More and more rural Americans are getting high-speed internet, and narrowing the broadband penetration gap with people living in urban and suburban areas, according to a Pew Internet study.

As of late 2005, 24% of rural Americans had broadband internet connections at home. This is still well below the 39% of people living elsewhere in the US who have broadband, but percentage-wise, the gap has definitely narrowed.

In 2003, just 9% of rural-dwellers had an in-home broadband connection, less than half of the 22% figure among urban and suburban residents.

Overall internet access is also closing, with 62% of rural and 70% of non-rural Americans now having some way to gain access to the web.

“For certain things, like taking classes online, the internet is a real distance-killing benefit for rural Americans,” said Katherine Murray, who co-authored the Pew report.