Global Broadband Sales Poised to Triple by 2011's End
Revenue from broadband services worldwide has already grown 10% this year, and ABI Research expects that number to keep skyrocketing. According to a new report released Tuesday, the research firm expects broadband sales to more than triple by the end of 2011, thanks to the speedy acceptance of fiber-optic broadband over the digital subscriber lines (DSL) widely used in North America and Western Europe today.
Broadband service revenue for the first three quarters of the year totaled $44.4 billion, with DSL accounting for about 60% of the sales, according to ABI. But that revenue will surge to about $186 billion by the end of 2011 as many Internet providers switch to fiber optic from DSL, ABI said.
What's driving the growth? As more customers get their television and video content from the Web, they are demanding higher speeds. U.K.-based Virgin Media (VMED) has expanded its high-speed broadband customer base by 43% in the past year, which is accelerating fiber broadband rollouts, according to ABI Research's Khin Sandi Lynn.
Earlier this year, ABI predicted that almost half of the flat-panel TVs shipped in 2013 will be Internet-connectable, up from 19% this year.
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