Only 20 percent of US has broadband?!?

Er, I don't think so, folks...

[weeks]

Really?

...The European Union has since regained a lead of three percentage points over the United States, with 23 percent of European homes and business using fixed-line broadband, compared with 20 percent in the United States, Mr. Selmayr said.
[nytimes.com...]

Hmmm.

Home broadband adoption stood at 63% of adult Americans as of April 2009, up from 55% in May 2008.
[pewresearch.org...]

I doubt this as well, from the first link to NYT above.

...a third of European Union citizens have never used the Internet, and only 7 percent have bought goods or services online from a vendor based in a neighboring country, Ms. Reding said.

[LifeinAsia]

No idea where they're getting their numbers from. According to the article, "Denmark has 37 percent of homes and businesses fitted with high-speed Internet, the highest percentage in the world" and "South Korea, the country with the highest percentage of homes and businesses equipped with high-speed Internet outside Europe, ranked sixth globally." So logically, South Korea must have somewhat less than 37%.

Yet, according to South Korea - Broadband Market - Overview & Statistics [budde.com.au], "By early 2009, over 30% of the population and nearly 85% of households were broadband subscribers."

[Leosghost]

Dont forget ..these articles are written by people who call the in house IT guy/gal to change the batteries in their radio mice :)

European figures are rubbish and bear no relation to reality ..so I dont suppose any of the others are any more accurate ..

( the only area where they may be close is that Europeans dont buy from neighbouring countries much ..because we dont all speak the same language ..and most of us cant read each others websites ..less they have an English option )

[sgietz]

20% of Americans, Internet users, people with computers? What's their data pool?

[piatkow]

20% of America by area?

only 7 percent have bought goods or services online from a vendor based in a neighboring country, Ms. Reding said.

and the percentage of Americans who have made on-line purchases from Mexico, Canada?

I'd have to go through these articles in detail, I can't work out if consistent definitions are being compared here. The PEW report seems to be referring to broadband generally but suddenly throws in the term "high speed" in one paragraph. To an English reader "high speed" is a specific sub set of broadband.