Broadband connection rate reaches 60 percent in U.S.

More than 60 percent of Americans who use the Internet at home now do so with a high-speed connection, a new study finds.

That’s a jump from 51 percent a year ago. Nielsen/NetRatings says 86 million Internet users surfed the Web on home broadband connections in August.

Broadband use has grown steadily in the United States as prices fall and more video and other bandwidth-intent materials are available online.

“This continuing increase in broadband use is an essential step in a maturing Internet industry,” said Charles Buchwalter, the research firm’s vice president of client analytics. Broadband users tend to spend more time and money online, he said.

Meanwhile in India, an trade group said the country will fall far short of its goal of getting 2 million broadband connections this year.

U.S. to get BlackBerry on other device

The BlackBerry service for checking e-mail on the go will be available on a non-BlackBerry device for the first time in the United States with the November launch of a Nokia Corp. smart phone by Cingular Wireless.

The BlackBerry Connect service, introduced earlier this year in Europe and Asia, is the latest entry in a newly crowded market of real-time e-mail platforms for mobile devices.

Just three weeks ago, Nokia unveiled a rival technology under its own brand.

Cingular is charging $350 for the Nokia 9300 device — $50 less for customers who commit for two years — and then $45 per month for unlimited e-mail usage. That’s the same rate Cingular charges for BlackBerry service on a BlackBerry device.

The Nokia 9300 runs on the Symbian operating system, a best-selling platform in Europe and other overseas markets.

U.N. defends venue for tech summit

Facing heated protest, the United Nations is defending Tunisia’s hosting of a U.N. summit on Internet access in the developing world, even though the north African nation stands accused of such rights abuses as blocking Web sites it dislikes.

Earlier this week, a coalition of human rights groups known as the Tunisia Monitoring Group issued a report that declared Tunisia unfit to hold the World Summit on the Information Society. It cited reports that the government has stepped up attacks on the press and civil society.