Online Behavior of High Speed Internet Users
Frequency of use and the number and type of online activities in which people engage vary substantially by whether they have Internet access at home and by the type of home Internet connection. For example, almost one-third (31.9 percent) of Americans access the Internet on a daily basis. Ninety percent of these frequent users have Internet access in their homes. As shown in Table 2, people without Internet access at home are not only much less likely to be Internet users in general, they are also much less likely to be frequent users.
The greater number of online activities in which individuals engage, the higher the likelihood they will have broadband at home. Even though the “frequency of use” variable refers to Internet use from any location, those individuals with broadband in the home are more likely to be daily Internet users (66.1 percent) than those with dial-up at home (51.2 percent).
People with broadband in the home also engage to a greater degree in certain online activities. Figure 5 shows the percent of Internet users engaging in some common online activities in September 2001 and October 2003. These activities have been grouped into four broad categories: communications, entertainment, transactions, and information. Figure 6 shows activities by percent of Internet users in each of three home connection types (no Internet at home, home dial-up access, and home broadband access). As discussed below, individuals who go online for entertainment, banking, purchasing products or services, or obtaining information, are more likely to have broadband at home than those with dial-up service.
Communications
E-mail remains the most prevalent online activity, with 87.8 percent of Internet users sending and receiving e-mail or instant messaging. As shown in Figure 5, the percentage of Internet users who e-mail remained virtually unchanged between 2001 and 2003. Additionally, Figure 6 shows that those with dial-up and broadband service at home, as well as those without Internet access at home, are using the Internet for e-mail at substantial levels. The survey did not ask about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), an emerging application, although future surveys will do so.
Entertainment
The use of the Internet for entertainment is substantially more likely among those with broadband. As shown in Figure 6, the proportion of Internet users with home dial-up connections who listen to the radio or view TV or movies on the Internet is almost one-half of those with broadband connectivity (17.3 percent versus 30.9 percent, respectively). In fact, dial-up users are more like those without the Internet at home in terms of the extent of their use of the Internet for entertainment.
Transactions
Two of the activities with the greatest growth between 2001 and 2003 were online purchases of goods and services (e-commerce) and online banking. As Figure 5 demonstrates, the proportion of Americans engaging in e-commerce has grown substantially—8.0 percentage points—over the 2001-2003 period. Online banking grew by 10.4 percentage points, more than any other activity considered. Both e-commerce and online banking are also areas where substantial differences exist between usage levels of home dial-up and broadband users.
Information
A large majority of Internet users go online for information. They most often search for product or service information, frequently as a precursor to online or conventional commerce. In general, usage rates for dial-up and broadband users are similar in this area. A significant portion of home dial-up Internet users (40.0 percent) and nearly a majority of broadband Internet users (47.9 percent) use the Internet to research health services and related issues. News, weather, and sports is the only information category where a difference of over 10 percentage points exists between dial-up and broadband users: 64.4 and 76.2 percent, respectively. The number of information searches about government services or agencies also grew between 2001 and 2003, with substantial differences existing in this e-government activity between those with broadband Internet at home and those without.
Internet users with broadband at home are more likely than those with dial-up or no home Internet connection to engage in each of the specific activities discussed above. Additionally, they are more likely to engage in the highest number of online activities. As shown in Figure 7, 15.0 percent of Internet users with no Internet at home engage in only one of the 12 activities considered. The proportion of Internet users with Internet in the home that engage in only one activity is much smaller—8.3 percent of those with home dial-up service and 4.5 percent of those with broadband. At the other end of the distribution, 22.1 percent of Internet users with broadband at home engage in eight or more activities. The comparable figures are 10.6 percent for those with dial-up at home and 8.2 percent for users without Internet at home.
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