Broadband Growth Swells

By Mary Mosquera

High-speed Internet subscribers increased 63 percent during the second half of 2000 to a total of 7.1 million broadband lines in service as of Dec. 31, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.

The nation's communications regulator collects the data twice a year to gauge how quickly U.S. Internet users are adopting high-speed services over telephone, cable, satellite and fixed wireless technology. Adoption of broadband technology will spur Internet commerce and other advanced services, the FCC has said.

"Such deployment is essential to our nation's growth in the 21st century, as it dramatically reduces the cost of exchanging information, enables 'local' businesses to provide services to the entire world, and provides numerous and innovative services to consumers," said FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin, a recent appointee of President Bush.

High-speed subscribers swelled 118 percent from year-end 1999 to year-end 2000, the FCC said. Besides just being more numerous, subscribers were also more geographically dispersed.

Of the total broadband lines, 5.2 million, or 73 percent, were residential and small business subscribers. Broadband users are now in all 50 states and in 75 percent of the nation's zip codes.

Broadband over asymmetric digital subscriber lines increased 108 percent in the second half of 2000 to 2 million lines; over cable systems by 57 percent to 3.6 million lines; and satellite and fixed wireless to 112,000 lines, 124 percent from the year before at the last count.