The broadband revolution is starting to catch the fancy of online seniors. For Americans over the age of 65 who log on at home, 32% connect to the internet with a high-speed connection. This is according to our December 2004 survey. That’s still a gap – 50% of all Americans over age 18 who go online from home have high-speed connections – but it’s narrower than it was a couple of years ago. In October 2002, 24% of all Americans with internet access at home used a broadband connection to get online, while just 7% of seniors got online from home with high-speed.
Seniors are still less likely to have internet access than the general population, but there has always been a group of senior tech elites who have embraced the internet. They tend to be well-off economically – so picture grandpa watching the financial portfolio online or grandma getting the latest pictures of the grandkids. Like anyone else who has the means and who has been using the internet for a number of years, these seniors are sick of the dial-up wait. For that reason, these “silver surfers” are happily catching the broadband wave.
