Broadband Internet increases for rural households, but not universally

Starting from nonexistent subscription rates in the early 1990s, the rural Internet subscription rate more than doubled between 1998 and 2001 (from less than 4 million households to 8 million households). Yearly gains in household Internet subscriptions, however, have slowed considerably since 2001. Early adopters of Internet technology (both urban and rural) relied heavily on dialup connections, but use of broadband technologies expanded rapidly starting in 2003. Nonetheless, not until 2007 did the majority of the Nation’s households gain Internet access using broadband technologies. The majority of rural households did not use broadband technologies until 2009. This chart is found in the ERS bulletin, Rural Broadband At A Glance: 2013 Edition, June 2013.

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