Online households in the US are predicted to reach 88 million by the end of 2010, up from 75 million at the end of 2004, with an expected 78% penetration rate, according to the latest forecasts from JupiterResearch.
Residential broadband adoption is expected to grow much faster, increasing to more than three-quarters of the online population by 2010, up from just under half of connected households in 2004.
Analyst, eMarketer, projects that broadband households will grow at a compound annual rate of 19.4% between 2004 and 2008, forecasting penetration for all households to grow to 56.3% in 2008, up from 23.1% in 2003.
Commenting on the new figures, Joe Laszlo of JupiterResearch said: “With a clearer value proposition and increasingly reasonable prices, the question people ask themselves is shifting from ‘Why would I get broadband?’ to ‘Why wouldn’t I get broadband?'”
The mass uptake of broadband is having a knock-on effect on everything from the entertainment industry to telecommunications.
Ben Macklin, senior analyst at eMarketer explains: “No longer is the broadband market merely about high-speed internet access. The new market, in which cable and television companies are competing, also includes voice and video, a market worth nearly ten times the value of the internet access business alone.”
One such market that has arisen from broadband is Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP), which is poised for significant growth. A report from analysts eMarketer predicts that the next two years will mark a turning point for the technology (see VoIP To Increase Penetration In Two Years).
According to the latest data from TeleGeography Research, VoIP subscribers in the US are predicted to exceed 4.1 million by the end of 2005, generating over $1 billion in gross revenues (see Outdoor Advertising One Of The Fastest Growing Media).
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