High speed Internet connections in the United States jumped from 51.2 million to 64.6 million in the first six months of 2006, the Federal Communications Commission reports.

The FCC defines "high speed" as 200 kilobytes per second in at least one direction. By that gauge, from June 30th, 2005 through June 30th, 2006, businesses and homes acquired 22.1 million more lines.

Cable modem services provided about 44 percent of those connections; DSL served up another third. Wireless, satellite, T-carrier, and fiber services took care of the rest.

45.9 million of those lines served primarily residential users, the FCC says. Available DSL provider data indicates that Qwest, Verizon, AT&T, BellSouth, and their affiliates sell over 80 percent of "ADSL," a common form of DSL service.

In related statistics released by the Commission today, telcos reported 217.4 million mobile phone subscriptions at the end of June 2006, a 13% boost from 2005.