“Led by a dramatic increase among blacks, Americans have traded up to high-speed Internet access at an unexpectedly fast pace during the past year, according to a study released Sunday.

The number of African-Americans with a high-speed, or "broadband," connection soared 121 percent, driving an overall increase of 40 percent in broadband use by American households, the report said.

The study, which categorized broadband as becoming more mainstream in this country, was released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group that studies the social effects of the World Wide Web.

After the pace of Americans' broadband adoption seemed to slow in 2004, the rate picked up markedly last year, said John Horrigan, Pew associate director for research and author of the report.

As of March, 42 percent of all U.S. households had high-speed Internet at home, up from 30 percent a year earlier. The Internet now reaches 73 percent of all households through both high-speed and slower, dial-up connections.

But Pew researchers had not factored in the 121 percent surge among blacks, which raised the number of black households with high-speed Internet connections from 14 percent to 31 percent.

That high growth rate was fueled in part by an uptick in African-American men choosing broadband to download files faster and perform job-related tasks, Horrigan said. “


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