The broadband revolution, or access to the Internet via high-speed connections, has been hailed as the future of the Internet. This chapter has provided a picture of the current 'state of play' in the domestication of broadband Internet access in Europe. It has done so by bringing together several different data sources, each of which provides a distinct but complementary view of what people do with broadband Internet. It has been seen that broadband Internet users differ only marginally from PSTN Internet users but that the differences may be commercially significant. This summary highlights the finding that broadband Internet users tend to be more experienced and technologically competent.

Chapter Contents:

• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 Broadband Socio-Demographics
• 8.3 Broadband Usage
• 8.4 Perceptions of Broadband
• 8.5 Implications
• 8.6 Summary

Inspec keywords: broadband networks; information retrieval; Internet

Other keywords: PSTN Internet; broadband revolution; broadband Internet access domestication; high speed connection

Subjects: Computer communications