Where broadband is hot

Broadband services will dominate the Internet economy by 2005, according to a report recently published by the U.S. Telecom Association.

The report – “Broadband Facts 2004: The Industry by the Numbers” – has more than 50 pages of statistics and projections on the use of high-speed Internet services here and abroad. In this week’s issues of the ISP News Report, I am highlighting some of the report’s most interesting predictions.

More than half – or 53% – of online households will have high-speed connections in 2005, research firm eMarketer asserts in the USTA report. EMarketer predicts that bandwidth-intensive applications such as downloading music and videos, online gaming, voice over IP and online learning will drive purchases of broadband services in the U.S.

“In early 2004, a significant broadband milestone was reached: the 100 millionth broadband subscriber connected,” eMarketer states. “From 100,000 subscribers in 1996 to 100 million in early 2004, broadband has moved beyond the early-adopter stage and has entered the mainstream.”

By 2010, the Internet access market will be driven by bandwidth-on-demand services rather than the broadband services sold today. “Bandwidth will flow like water from a tap,” eMarketer says of the bandwidth-on-demand era.

Nearly 250 million households and businesses will subscribe to broadband services worldwide by 2007, eMarketer predicts. The region with the greatest broadband usage will continue to be Asia-Pacific, followed by North America and Western Europe. The eMarketer study predicts that Asia-Pacific will surpass 100 million broadband households in 2007. In contrast, the U.S. will have only 54.5 million broadband households in 2007.

The eMarketer study notes that each broadband subscription involves two or more users, since families typically share high-speed connections.