Working With a Net, but No Wires

On-the-go Internet users are an attractive demographic.

According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 34% of Internet users have connected using a wireless network.

And 27% of Internet users have connected wirelessly from someplace other than home or work.

Why should online marketers care how people get online?

For starters, wireless users are more frequent Internet users: 72% of wireless users check e-mail on the typical day, compared with 63% of home broadband users and 54% of all Internet users.

In addition, 46% of wireless users get news online during the typical day, compared with 38% of home broadband users and 31% of all Internet users.

Most wireless users (80%) have broadband connections at home, so they are hardly dependent on public wireless access nodes. Rather, wireless users may be viewed as "deeper" Internet users than those who use wired connections exclusively.

Wireless Internet users are, on the whole, younger and better educated, and they have higher incomes than Internet users in general.

"We know that 'always on' broadband connections really deepen people's relationship to the Internet. Adding 'on the go' to the mix takes this a step further," said John Horrigan of Pew. "The convenience of wireless access gives people the chance to fire off a quick e-mail to someone while waiting in a doctor's office or check the news headlines on the way to work."

Ipsos Insight released a study of wireless Internet activity during November 2006.

The findings were similar to Pew's, with 16% of US Internet users connected wirelessly during the previous month, and 10% surfing the Web with a mobile phone.

Get a global view on Internet users — read eMarketer's Worldwide Internet Users: 2005-2011 report.