TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Characteristics and Choices of Internet Users

摘要

Americans use of the Internet has grown dramatically in the past few years. Today, there are well over 100 million Americans online. Nationally, more than half of all households have a computer and over 80 percent of those households have access to the Internet. A small but growing percentage of online households have a broadband connection to the Internet a high-speed, high- capacity connection that provides better access to sophisticated forms of Internet content, such as streaming video. Yet during the past few years, even as Internet usage has continued to expand, concerns have arisen about whether a digital divide is occurring in America that is, whether access to the Internet and other advanced telecommunications services is limited for Americans in lower socioeconomic classes or who live in rural areas. These concerns have arisen because the Internet offers Americans a gateway to a vast array of content and applications, and is expected to become a primary medium for communications, commerce, education, and entertainment in the 21st century.