A third of U.S. households have no net connection

Parks Associates' second annual National Technology Scan found that 29 percent of U.S. households do not have internet access, that’s around 31 million homes.

Just 22 percent with no access were unable to afford a connection but twice that, 44 percent, were just not interested in anything on the internet.

While broadband adoption grew to 52 percent last year, up 10 percent on 2005, half of the new subscribers were upgrading from dial-up or slower-speed connections and not new adopters of the internet.

"The industry continues to chip away at the core of nonsubscribers, but has a ways to go," said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates.

"Entertainment applications will be the key. If anything will pull in the holdouts, it's going to be applications that make the Internet more akin to pay TV," he predicted.

It’s not just cost and content keeping American households offline. Seventeen percent weren’t sure how to use the internet and 14 percent appeared to have no need for a home connection saying “I do all my e-commerce shopping and YouTube-watching at work."

Three percent of those surveyed lived outside of internet access zones.

Tags: broadband penetration, internet usage, Park Associates