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is upon us at last
High-speed users logging more hours than dialers
By Marty Beard
It has long been expected that high-speed broadband internet usage would someday eclipse access through dial-up connections.
Just when was the question.
Now it has happened: During the month of January, broadband usage outpaced narrowband usage for the first time ever in terms of the amount of time people spent online, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
"Broadband usage has hit mainstream, with time spent online by broadband surfers surpassing the critical 50 percent benchmark," says Jarvis Mak, senior internet media analyst with Nielsen//NetRatings.
In January broadband users spent 1.19 billion hours online, compared to 1.14 billion for narrowband users, meaning that broadband connections accounted for 51 percent of the 2.3 billion hours that people spent online.
The number of broadband hours logged in January represents a 64 percent increase over January 2001, when broadband users logged just 727 million hours online.
Narrowband hours actually slipped 3 percent year over year, from 1.18 billion in January 2001.
The number of narrowband users fell. Among at-home users, it slipped 6 percent year-over-year, from 87 million in January 2001 to 82 million in January of this year.
The decline was more dramatic among at-work users, falling 42 percent, to 15 million from 19.3 million.
The comparative numbers directly reflect the speed at which Americans are switching to higher-speed access.
Households with broadband access rose 67 percent from January to January, for a total of 21.9 million households.
Dialup connections are still far greater in number for home users, however, at 82 million.
At work, the number of users rose by 42 percent, to 25.5 million people, exceeding the number of those on dial-up.
But dial-up connections aren’t going away entirely, Mak says, since there are always going to be places where the phone and cable companies can’t reach, or where satellite connections are prohibitively expensive.
Also people will subscribe to low-cost dial-up services as backups for when their broadband is acting up.
"I think narrowband will always be around, just in increasingly tiny portions," Mak says.
With broadband connections becoming the rule rather than the exception, the norms and rules of the internet are changing.
"It’s a pretty revolutionary step that broadband usage equals narrowband usage," Mak says. "People are used to seeing broadband users in the minority. Now that we’re seeing it’s equal, you really have to pay attention to the power of the broadband user."
Studies show that broadband users are more affluent and heavier internet users, spending more time online, viewing more pages, and getting exposed to more advertising.
They also purchase more online.
The rapid rise of broadband use is creating in turn greater opportunities for the more sophisticated advertising that broadband enables, opening the way not just for larger and more creatively engaging ads but for more sophisticated placement and tracking.
Mak predicts that so-called spyware, which comes bundled with popular file-swapping applications such as BearShare, will grow in popularity with marketers eager to reach affluent broadband users.
Spyware tracks users’ online activities, usually without their awareness, relaying the information to advertisers so that they in turn can serve a particular user more precisely targeted ads.
"With the appropriate amount of bandwidth, that makes the transaction that much faster," Mak say. And with broadband users viewing more pages, the spyware can gather more specific information.
Also online ads will continue to become bigger and busier.
"You used to see plain banners, but now there’s animation going on, and they’re more interactive," Mak says. "In some cases you can conduct a transaction through a banner."
Additionally greater broadband penetration brings all that much closer the long-talked-about convergence of television and the internet.
Already many broadband users surf the web and watch television simultaneously. And in an effort to appeal to broadband users, many web sites offer high-speed features such as streaming video and audio clips.
Broadcasters’ sites provide video and audio supplements to their news, sports and entertainment offerings, plus gimmicks such as the opportunity to predict and comment on strategy in professional sports, or play along with a game show.
"Convergence is definitely happening right now and will continue to do so," Mak says.
March 6, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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