Broadband Passes Dial-Up in U.S. Homes

NEW YORK - For the first time, a majority of American households that use the Internet reach it over a high-speed connection, a milestone researchers say is quietly rewriting what the Web can be.

A report released this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project puts broadband in 53 percent of wired U.S. homes — up from roughly a third just two years ago — as phone companies cut DSL prices toward $15 a month to catch cable's early lead.

"We have crossed the line," said a Pew researcher. "The dial-up era is ending faster than most people expected, and faster than the phone companies' own forecasts."

The shift changes behavior, not just speed. Broadband users are far more likely to log on daily, to bank and shop online, to download music and video, and to run the always-on connections that make photo sharing, blogging and Internet phone calling practical.

It also opens a divide. Rural areas lag badly — the phone and cable lines that carry broadband stop where the economics do — and dial-up users skew older and poorer. "The gap now is not who goes online, but how well," the researcher said.

The milestone arrives as phone and cable companies fight their first real turf war. Cable has held the broadband lead since the late 1990s; the phone giants, having slashed DSL prices, are now rolling out fiber lines that promise speeds several times cable's best.

The stakes reach beyond Web pages. Both industries are racing to bundle television, Internet and phone service into single packages before the other can — a contest that has made broadband the most contested piece of household plumbing since the telephone itself.

The report found about a quarter of U.S. adults still have no Internet access at home at all, a number that has barely budged even as speeds have soared.