Statistical analysis firm comScore Inc. said Wednesday broadband growth in the United States is heaviest in rural parts of the country.
"Across the country we have witnessed growth in broadband adoption driven by greater price competition and increased consumer demand, as bandwidth-intense activities like video streaming and peer-to-peer sharing continue to grow," Brian Jurutka, vice president of telecommunications at comScore, said in a press release. "With low-speed DSL priced at about the same level as dial-up in many areas, there is little incentive for households to remain on dial-up."
Rural markets – or areas with fewer than 10,000 residents – saw a 16-percentage point increase in broadband penetration from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2009, comScore said. That marked the fastest-growing geographic market segment in the nation.
Still, those regions' broadband penetration stands at 75 percent, 14 percent below the national average.
