Largest cable companies in the US added 1.19 mln broadband subscribers in Q1 2008, according to Leichtman Research Group. Phone companies added 1.01 mln DSL customers in Q1 2008. Since Q3 2004, phone companies had been adding subscribers faster than cable, closing in on cable’s lead in total subscribers. But that lead is now widening, with cable companies having a total of 34.7 mln subscribers compared with 29.5 mln at the phone companies.

52% of Britons online are on a connection speed between 512Kb and 2Mb. 33% are on a connection speed between 2Mb and 8Mb, according to Nielsen. The faster the connection speed, the more time people spend online - those on the fastest speed (over 8Mb) averaged 22% more time online than those on the lowest (?128Kb). In February 2008, Britons using dial-up averaged 16 hours 7 minutes online, whereas those on Super Fast broadband averaged 19 hours 40 minutes

Most internet users age 45 or older say content online serves less their needs and interests than those of younger persons, according to a Burst Media. 67.7% of internet users age 45 or older say their daily routine would be disrupted if their online access was taken away for one week (42.9% say “significantly”) - with “the oldest segment looking very much like the youngest segment”. Some 43.9% of those age 55+ surveyed say there would be significant disruption in their lives if internet access were taken away.

By 2010, the average US household will be using 1.1 TB of bandwidth a month, according to Internet Innovation Alliance. At that level, 20 homes would generate more traffic than the entire Internet did in 1995.

European Union added 19 mln broadband lines in 2007, the equivalent of more than 50,000 households a day. Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg and France all now have higher broadband penetration than the US. European telecommunications market is now worth 300 bln euros, or $474 bln, 2% of European gross domestic product. EU broadband rates vary from 35.6 lines per hundred inhabitants in Denmark to 7.6 in Bulgaria.

The number of computers using mobile broadband technology to access the Internet grew by 154% in Q4 2007 versus Q4 2006.

India, with a population of 1.1 bln, had 3.24 mln broadband subscribers at the end of January 2008, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Over 70% of 18-24 year-olds in UK with internet access at home say they log on to sites such as MySpace, Bebo or Facebook  regularly, but only 6% of the over 65s.  Social networking is already the seventh most widespread internet activity, carried on by 35% of all home internet users, but one of the most strongly age-related. Over 36% of broadband homes are already using social networking against only 14% of dial-up ones.  This suggests there are about 5.3 mln homes enjoying internet social networking in the UK, of which barely 200,000 still rely on dial-up, Point Topic says.

76% of American adults (those age 18 and older) reported using the internet, according to the Pew Internet Project. And 24% say they do not use the internet. 59% of internet users go online at least once a day from home, and 43% say they use it that often from work.

77% of the home internet users - or 55% of all Americans - have high speed access via cable modem, DSL, a wireless connection, a satellite link or some other way, according to the Pew Internet Project. Some 18% of home users say they have dial-up access and 5% said they had some other type of access or did not know the specifics of their access at home. 64% of Americans have broadband access at home and/or at work. The remaining 36% either have dial-up access (13%) or no access at all (23%).

Among those with household incomes less than $40,000, 57% are grouped as having low-access to the Internet and 43% are high-access. Among those in households earning $40,000 and up, 19% are low-access and 81% are high-access, according to the Pew Internet Project. By education: half of those with at most a high school degree (52%) are low-access, while only 18% of those with a college degree fall into the category. By race and ethnicity: African-Americans are much more likely to be low-access: 48% have such limited access, compared with 52% who have high-access.

96% of households have basic broadband access, placing California as a leader in broadband availability among all 50 states. Nearly 2,000 communities are still unable to access high-speed internet, only half of Californians have access to broadband at speeds greater than 10 Mbps, and even though availability rates are at 96%, just over half of California households use broadband, California Broadband Task Force reports.

54% of American adults had a high-speed connection at home, compared to 45% in December of 2006, according to the Pew Internet Project

61% of broadband Internet users either watch or download online video content at least once a week, according to Horowitz Associates. 86% do so on a monthly basis, compared to 45% and 71%, respectively, in the 2006 study. 70% of Internet users who watch TV online say do so because they missed the episode on TV. 18% of these respondents say they watch TV shows online to watch them again after having watched them on TV. 20% watch TV shows online just when they happen to find them or when someone else tells them about them. 13% of Internet users who watch TV shows online say they watch them directly online, and not on regular TV.