Broadband has become a mainstream service in the United States, with one in five households using high-speed connections to access the internet, a market research firm said Tuesday.
As of the end of last year, there were 27 million US business and residential subscribers, clearly making broadband mainstream, In-Stat/MDR said.
The subscriber base was now large enough to open up markets for other services that could take advantage of high-speed connections, such as home entertainment/networking, voice over IP and online gaming.
'This starts a cycle where growth in both broadband and applications feed the growth of each other,' In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar said in a statement.
The research firm, however, warned that higher broadband usage meant service providers would be providing customer service to subscribers less experienced with computers and the internet than early adopters.
Therefore, more customers would have less patience for dealing with technical issues, and would be less likely to perform self-diagnosis, opting instead to just pick up the phone and call customer service. Communicating with mainstream users would also be more difficult.
'However, the opportunities will outweigh the challenges,' Schoolar said.
Other findings in a report released Tuesday by In-Stat were that cable modems continued to be the most common broadband access technology In the United States, with DSL remaining in second.
At the end of 2003, Comcast and Time Warner accounted for the majority of all cable modem subscribers. Overall, six cable operators had 91 percent of the US cable modem market.
SBC and Verizon accounted for the majority of US DSL subscribers at the end of 2003. Overall, five providers accounted for 94 percent of the US DSL market.
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