Broadband is to this decade what cable television was to the 1980’s, says the latest report from Instat, as cable and DSL figures are expected to climb from 24 million subscribers in 2003 to 50 million by 2008.
However, Instat says while growth will remain strong, it will be slowing as the market moves to maturity and the subscriber base becomes quite large, a transition that has already occurred for cable services and is on the cusp for DSL.
In 2003, 27.3% of US households subscribed to either a cable modem or broadband service and by 2008 this will grow to 42.1% of households, as broadband evolves from a leading edge service to a standard offering with mass adoption.
The new report also showed that upper-middle income households have the largest base of broadband subscribers and will also remain the fastest growing over the short-term.
In the UK, one in five households now access the internet via a high-speed broadband connection and this figure is expected to grow by 64% over the next fifteen months (see One In Five UK Homes Now Have Broadband Access).
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