CYBERSPACE – The number of rural Americans with broadband internet access has better than doubled over the past two years, according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life project. According to the study, at the close of 2005, 24-percent of rural citizens had broadband access, compared with only 9-percent in 2003. Pew’s study surveyed 5,262 people between September and December of last year. The same study showed that in urban areas, 39-percent of users had broadband access in the home, up from 22-percent in 2003.

The Pew report, released recently, defines broadband or “high-speed service” as any service faster than dialup – which means that these numbers include a several connection types that may not be as fast as what many users have come to associate with the term “broadband,” but which do constitute an improvement over standard dialup access. Overall, researchers found that 36-percent of Americans now have high-speed access, up from 22-percent in 2003.

One obvious impediment to the rollout of broadband in rural areas is cost. Phone and cable companies are hesitant to spend the big dollars necessary to extend their services far outside of urban areas, especially given the sparse population and unfavorable demographic found in urban areas.

“Rural Americans are, on average, older, less educated, and with lower incomes than people living in other parts of the United States – all factors associated with lower levels of online use,” Pew states in its report.

John Horrigan, associate director for research at Pew, said that when it comes to getting their hands on broadband access, the numbers game is definitely working against rural residents.

“Even if there are people with a big interest in the internet and the means to pay for it, there are so few of them that it’s hard to justify the investment,” Horrigan said.

The slow rollout of cable and DSL service may explain a jump in satellite-based broadband use in rural areas; according to the Pew report, the number of rural residents purchasing satellite-based access increased from 1-percent to 5-percent between 2003 and 2005.

The Pew study did find that once urban users have broadband access, they show about the same “intensity” of internet usage as their urban counterparts. As defined in the Pew study, the measure of “intensity” is based on factors like how often a person goes online each day, and the number of different online activities a person engages in (like checking email, looking up stock quotes, and reading news stories).