Broadband Satellite Internet Taking Off; Residential Broadband Industry to be worth $80bn by 2007
Digital satellite has become one of the most popular platforms for the reception of digital television.
Satnews/ -- A newly released report of the ARC Group titled "Broadband Access 2002" concludes that broadband internet is “finally taking off .” In fact, 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 strategic report, 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.
Despite the appeal of broadband cable and DSL connections, the report says newcomers like satellite and fixed wireless “are evolving with attractive propositions”. Last year, the report admits, the broadband industry suffered with many key vendors and service providers faced up to the prospect of significant downsizing and some even filed for bankruptcy. But the report optimistically says “2002 offers a wealth of opportunities although key players are venturing cautiously with new developments.”
"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," says Tim Page, the author of the report.
Several major companies have recently withdrawn from broadband activities until the demand increases and this is painting a mixed picture for the future.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
The 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. |
