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You have access to the Internet at home by subscribing to a high-speed broadband service, as do the majority of your American compatriots. That's unless you are among the adults on 1 who have dropped out or switched to home broadband. And many of you who have made this decision have found what you consider to be an appropriate substitute: your smartphone.

This is the main conclusion of a poll on mobile technology and home broadband conducted with US adults released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

Pew found that 37% of respondents said that when they used the Internet, they did so mainly on a smartphone, nearly twice as many as the 19% who responded in the same way in 2013.

And 45% of the non-broadband crowd say that their smartphone allows them to do everything they need to do online, a substantial increase over the 27% who said so in 2015.

In fact, Pew indicates that the proportion of non-broadband users who claim that their smartphone is the main reason why their broadband Internet connection is not installed has almost doubled over the same period, from 12% to 23%.

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Of course, some people have invoked the affordability of broadband to explain their reluctance. But the percentage of non-broadband adopters who cited the price as a barrier rose from 33% in 2015 to 21% today.

In the meantime, while the use of smartphones for cyberconnections has increased in all age groups, young adults are more likely to purchase a handset when they connect online. Fifty-eight percent of 18-29 year-olds primarily use the telephone for this purpose, up from 41% in 2013.

As you can imagine, the level of income is also a determining factor in home broadband subscriptions. The report found that 73% of US adults report subscribing to home broadband Internet, but that number rises to 92% among adults in households with annual incomes of $ 75,000 or more . On the other hand, in households with an annual income of $ 30,000, the share of broadband subscribers drops to 56%.

According to the report, this 36-point gap in the adoption of broadband between the highest and lowest income groups is significantly larger than the 24-point gap in the number of smartphones with a smartphone.

Differences in education show an almost identical pattern.

Among the other results: About 46% of smartphone owners say they use the Internet mainly on their phone, compared to 34% six years ago. Over the same period, the number of smartphone users who claim that their main device for online connection is a desktop, a laptop or a tablet, has increased from 53% in 2013 to 30% today. # 39; hui. And about a quarter of smartphone users say they use a mobile phone, desktop, laptop or tablet when they use the Internet, up from 12% in 2013.

At the same time, out of 10 people without broadband, 6 said they had never had broadband Internet access at home, compared to about a third. And at least 80% of non-broadband users said they would not want to have broadband at home in the future, while 18% think it's something that They would consider.

The survey was conducted from January 8 to February 7 this year, with a nationally representative sample of 1,502 adults aged 18 and over.

Readers, do you have broadband at home or not, and even if you do, is the phone your main means of connecting online? Email: [email protected] or tweet @edbaig

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