Mobile data surge fails to show up in new survey

While nearly six in every 10 American adults are accessing the Internet via wireless technology, only 38% of all adults surveyed are accessing mobile data on a cell phone, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Unfortunately, the report doesn’t appear to break down usage that occurred exclusively on cellular networks. Pew defines a wireless Internet user as anyone using the Internet on a cell phone, smart phone or a laptop or portable device connected via Wi-Fi or mobile broadband card.
Taken together, that group comprised 59% of all those reached by the survey. That figure is up from 51% last year.
The percentage of adults accessing the Internet on a laptop using Wi-Fi or mobile data is now 47%, up from 39% last year.
For all the talk about the explosion of mobile broadband usage, it surely isn’t reflected in Pew’s latest survey.
When Internet, e-mail and instant messaging via cell phone are grouped together, only 40% are on board, but that is up from 32% last year. Pew also broke cell phone usage down further by category: 38% are accessing the Internet on a cell phone, 34% are sending or receiving e-mail and 30% or sending or receiving instant messages.