The centrality of broadband in people’s lives has grown in importance – and connectivity likely will attain far greater status as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. More than three quarters (76%) of people in U.S. broadband households said it would be “very difficult” for them to do without broadband service, according to new broadband attitudes research from Parks Associates.
Researchers also found that 60% of respondents would cancel their pay-TV subscription before taking that step with their broadband service.
The study, “360 View: Broadband Services in the US,” was conducted during the third quarter of 2019. Commentary in the press release from Steve Nason, Parks Associates’ Director of Research, pointed out that the trends identified at that time likely will be exacerbated by the crisis.
Those with OTT subscriptions are shifting away from bundles and are much more likely than non-subscribers to have standalone Internet service. Nason suggests that providers must tweak bundling strategies to include more OTT video. Currently, he wrote, less than one-fifth of subscribers receive an OTT service bundled with their broadband package.
The research also suggests that consumers do not fully understand how much broadband bandwidth their home needs. Consumers’ age, rather than actual usage patterns, is the best predictor of the service speed to which a household subscribes. Younger consumers – who heavily use connected platforms and services — are the biggest users of speeds of more than 1 Gbps.
Social distancing and self-isolation could cause a spike in demand for higher speed services, Nason says. “Current conditions, with many people working at home and entertaining-in-place, put more stress on the home’s broadband capacity, so service providers need to step up their efforts to help customers better understand their throughput needs. Customers will be more willing to upgrade their speed to match their increased consumption habits, provided they get the right information and assurances it will meet their needs, which will ultimately lead to higher satisfaction levels.”
The interesting thing that we have seen is an in crease in xDSL deployments and reduction in FTTH deployments.
With xDSL’s ability to be deployed as a self install vs the need for a FTTH ONT to be installed by a tech, many rural ISP’s seem to falling back on legacy hardwire to continue or increase deployments due to the influx of students and work from home endusers.