The residential market for broadband access will be worth $80bn by 2007. This
will represent a seven-fold increase in revenue over the next five years.
According to a new strategic report from ARC Group (www.arcgroup.com), by 2007
there will be almost 300m broadband business and residential premises being
connected via different access technologies. By the end of this period, the
number of broadband internet connections will have overtaken narrowband.
DSL will account for almost a third of all connections closely followed by broadband
cable. Satellite, fibre and fixed wireless will all represent a smaller proportion
of the market due to cost and availability factors.
Tim Page, the author of ARC Group's 'Broadband Access 2002' strategic report
(www.arcgroup.com/broadbandaccess)
says, "The current uncertainty in the broadband industry will be overcome
as technology vendors and service providers exploit revenue opportunities for
the business and residential markets. Broadband access will be driven by competitive
price war with operators trying to encourage narrowband users to migrate to
broadband".
Several major companies have recently withdrawn from broadband activities until
the demand increases and this is painting a mixed picture for the future. However,
Page says "There are positive signs that the broadband industry is starting
to take off with the launch of self install DSL and competitive "triple-play"
packages of voice, data and digital television. A fierce price war will be inevitable,
fuelled by BT's reduction in DSL Wholesale price to $21. This will result in
a more competitive consumer proposition".
Although the residential market has the largest number of broadband installations,
the business market will be the largest in terms of revenue and bandwidth usage.
This is because one broadband business connection maybe used by several offices
in the case of multi-tenanted units. In 2007 there will be over 30m broadband
business premises, with Western Europe accounting for a third of these as more
premises become broadband enabled for richer content and applications. In North
America, the rise in broadband business will slow down to due the broadband
saturation of premises. The Far East will rise to 4.24m in 2007 but will be
overtaken by Asia Pacific due to the rapid increase in broadband connections.
"The future offers a mixed bag of opportunities with new technology enabling
the extension of current broadband networks to a wider audience and competitive
service offerings to end users" says Page
Find out more in ARC Group's new report: 'Broadband Access 2002'. This new
report provides the latest research and analysis on the broadband access market
- its drivers, technologies and deployments. It includes comprehensive forecasts
for the residential and business market, key company profiles in each technology
sector and detailed deployment information for each technology.
Notes to editors:
ARC Group (www.arcgroup.com) publishes
in-depth strategic reports and provides consultancy on wireless internet, wireless
technologies and infrastructure, digital broadcasting, broadband access, telematics
and optical communications.
For more information about this report, contact Tim Page on +44 (0)1932-266935
or email tim.page@arcgroup.com
