U.S. Middle Class Loves That Home Broadband

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds America's middle class adopting broadband in a big way in 2005 and early 2006.

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that, for the year leading up to March 2006, broadband adoption grew twice as fast as in the previous year, with middle-income Americans, African Americans, and new Internet users leading the way.

According to Home Broadband Adoption 2006, some 43 percent of Americans (about 84 million people) had high-speed Internet access to their homes at the end of March 2006, up from just 30 percent in March 2005. Among middle-income households (defined as earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per year), the adoption rate increased by some 59 percent year over year. Broadband adoption was up 40 percent in households earning less than $30,000 per year, and broadband adoption among African American households rose a staggering 121 percent from year to year.

(Of course, looked at another way, the majority of U.S. households