Broadband To Reach 50% Of U.S. Homes

According to a new report from eMarketer, broadband Internet access will reach 50% of U.S. households in 2007. Why is this an important number? Because more and more of these homes are using the value-added perks that broadband access brings. Things like VoIP, IPTV and paid audio and video content.

by Kristina Knight

By 2010, some predict that as many as 65% of homes will have broadband access, about 34 million homes will have ADSL lines and another 40 million will access broadband from cable systems.

According to a report from In-Stat, about 9 million U.S. homes currently have at least one VoIP (Voiceover Internet Protocol) user. About 49% of those users said, they stopped using traditional phones when they switched to VoIP. By far, Vonage and Time Warner Cable are the most popular VoIP services, however free serves from Skype, MSN and Yahoo are gaining ground.

Business IP use will see the fastest growth at about 27% yearly through 2010. Research indicates the industry will see about $6 billion in revenue by then. Consumer IP phone use will grow at a slower rate to about $13 billion by 2010.

Both eMarketer and In-Stat predict that VoIP services will continue to gain in popularity over the next five years. eMarketer suggests that 40% of broadband households will be VoIP households by 2010.