US glories in broadband possibilities

NEWS More than half the time spent online in the US in January was via broadband connections - the first time high speed connections have outnumbered dial up access. Broadband use totalled nearly 1.2 billion hours, or 51 per cent of the 2.3 billion hours spent online by US web users during the month. In the same month last year just 38 per cent - 727 million hours - of the total time spent online was via broadband, according to the figures from Nielsen/NetRatings. Home users accounted for 21 per cent of those using broadband, a 67 per cent increase over January 2001. Sixty three per cent of businesses used broadband connections, representing a 42 per cent increase on the year ago period.