Broadband boost

A new TNS survey of 120,000 U.S. households finds an increase in the number of Americans with broadband connections — mostly fueled by growth in mobile broadband technologies, currently adopted by one in four households.

According to the study, mobile broadband penetration now reaches 25% of all U.S. households, primarily with cell phones, Smartphones and other hand-held wireless devices. This penetration is expected to accelerate rapidly as Smartphone adoption grows, choices among data plans expand and consumers continue to adapt their online behaviors to exploit this technology, according to a TNS statement.

"Spurred by increased consumer demand, and growth in bandwidth-intense activities like video streaming and peer-to-peer sharing, broadband penetration continues to make gains across every type of consumer and device," Tom Buehrer, senior vice president of TNS Technology, said in a statement. "However, with the boom in high-bandwidth video traffic; squeezed margins from carrying ‘low revenue’ video traffic; and as more and more young, tech-savvy consumers enter the market it is little surprise that growth in mobile broadband has accelerated with fixed solutions. The key for providers is to offer a compelling broadband customer experience that helps maximize revenue from existing customers, while increasing the chance of attracting new ones."

OTHER RESULTS
• There is great overlap in the penetrations of fixed and mobile broadband technologies; in fact, in the 67% of households that already have fixed broadband, 29% also have mobile broadband, compared to 25% across the nation as a whole.

• Households with both services are highly connected: they tend to also purchase wireline and wireless voice as well as video, and to bundle three or four services with a single communications provider. These households are high income, marrieds with children, and, as expected, they have the highest monthly communications spend.

• As adoption of mobile broadband Internet grows, online behaviors are changing.  Already, familiar online activities such as e-mail, navigation, photo sharing, and social networking are nearly as (if not more) prevalent among mobile broadband users as fixed broadband users.

• Some online activities, most notably banking, bill paying, shopping, and gaming remain more common among fixed broadband users, likely due to legacy usage habits and/or user concerns about wireless device security, features and convenience.

• Demand for some of the unique benefits of mobile broadband (like location based services) is expected to further reshape the nature, type, and frequency of people’s Internet usage.