US households gear up for 10Mbps broadband

Close to 33 million US households will have broadband services with speeds of 10Mbps or higher by 2012, industry analysts predict.

The North American Broadband Market Update from Parks Associates said that 5.7 million, or nine per cent of US broadband households, already had such speeds capable of streaming high-definition video at the end of 2007.

"Until recently operators' aggressive deployment of deep fibre services, and the competitive reaction from cable operators, fuelled the growth of high-bandwidth broadband services," said Yuanzhe Cai, director of broadband and gaming at Parks Associates.

"As consumer excitement over pure bandwidth subsides, however, service providers will have to deliver appealing, bandwidth-intensive, value-added services such as HD video streaming and content place shifting in order to retain customers and increase average revenue per user."

He added that service providers' missteps in bandwidth management practices, uncertainty around "network neutrality" and the contentious relationship between facility-based broadband service providers and over-the-top internet companies may slow broadband rollout progress.

"If high-bandwidth broadband services fail to reach mass-market consumers, the US may lose its competitive edge in the next round of technology innovation, " said Cai. "Such a scenario would be unpleasant."