The availability of fiber internet service across the United States grew from 45.9% of households to 55.6% between December 2021 and June 2023, according to a study by BroadbandNow. The site said that 5.6 million fiber subscribers have been added in the last 18 months.

There is quite a spread between the states with the highest and lowest fiber penetration rates. The states with the highest rates are Alaska (44.17%), New Mexico (41.74%), Arizona (35.26%), Nevada (22.39%) and Colorado (21.53%).

Those with the lowest rates are North Dakota (0.17%), Vermont (0.22%), Montana (0.36%), Wyoming (0.40%) and South Dakota (0.42%).

Among the 10 most urban states, the average percentage of households with fiber access has risen steadily over the last two years:

·         December 2021: 59.9%

·         June 2022: 61.9%

·         December 2022: 64.4%

·         June 2023: 67.2%

For the 10 most rural states, the percentage of households with fiber internet access has increased less steeply. The average percentage of households with fiber internet over the last two years is as follows:

·         December 2021: 35.9%

·         June 2022: 36.4%

·         December 2022: 39.4%

·         June 2023: 42.1%

“The steady growth in fiber access underscores the increasing adoption and expansion of fiber-optic technology across states,” noted BroadbandNow editor-in-chief Tyler Cooper. “However, the disparity in penetration rates suggests varying levels of infrastructure development, policy implementation, and prioritization among states. States with higher penetration might have benefitted from early investments, favorable policies, or a higher demand for advanced communication infrastructure.”

The report relied on almost 300 million speed tests, machine learning, FCC Form 477 data and the new National Broadband Map Fabric. Fiber broadband was defined to only include fiber-to-the-home – not hybrid fiber co-ax or DSL.

A 5G report commissioned by Boldyn Networks found that 71 percent of decision-makers at service provider and public and private sector organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland feel more confident in 5G performance than ever before. They said that availability of 5G directly influences the performance levels within their organizations.

Their confidence, however, was accompanied by acknowledgement of challenges to increasing 5G coverage and capacity. The report suggests that a neutral host approach may be a good path forward for network densification.

“Neutral hosts: The answer to 5G densification in delivering an interconnected future” found that respondents in the U.S. (86 percent) and in the U.K. and Ireland (64 percent) say 5G availability now has a direct impact on performance within their organization. Seventy-eight percent of respondents believe 5G will deliver optimal performance within the next year, with U.S. respondents being the most optimistic.

5G Report

The respondents identified challenges: CAPEX requirements (cited by 29 percent), achieving ubiquitous connectivity (27 percent) and laying new fiber (24 percent). Almost all decision makers (96 percent) faced challenges deploying 5G infrastructure, with 80 percent expecting to exceed their planned spend.

Despite the challenges, there is a clear desire to embark on 5G rollout quickly. The study found that 47 percent of respondents say increasing the deployment of macro cells and small cells was a priority. Sixty percent of operators and public and private sector organizations have a clear network densification strategy, with U.S.-based organizations being more advanced on that front.

The report suggests that neutral host approach may be the way forward for network densification. Ninety-two percent of respondents say they are likely to use neutral hosts to ease 5G densification. Increased cost effectiveness, assuring sustainability credentials, and time efficiency are the three top rationales for this approach, the study shows.

Sapio Research prepared the report. Respondents included 200 telecommunications decision-makers, 200 5G enterprise experts, and 200 public sector IT decision-makers evenly split between the U.K./Ireland and the U.S.

The percentage of U.S. households with a live pay-TV service continues to go in one direction: Down. The portion is now at 64%, according the Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

Pay-TV operators use cable, satellite or telco platforms or act as virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs). Eighty-seven percent of households used these platforms in 2008. The portion barely budged five years later (86% in 2013) but began trending down significantly in 2018 (78%) as streaming grew in popularity.

Households with Pay-TV

Sixty-six percent of households had a live TV service in 2021.

LRG’s “Pay-TV in the U.S. 2023” report found that 70% of adults above 45 years old and 56% of those 18 to 44 years-old have a pay-TV service.  In 2013, 88% of adults above 45 years-old and 83% of those 18 to 44 years old had a pay-TV service.

“The percent of U.S. TV households with a live pay-TV service waned over the past decade, with a more precipitous decline over the past five years,” Bruce Leichtman, LRG’s president and principal analyst, said in a press release. “The penetration of pay-TV remains lowest among younger adults and the categories that they tend to populate, including movers and renters.  Today, 56% of ages 18-44 have a pay-TV service, compared to 83% a decade ago.”

Other highlights from the twenty-first annual release of the report:

• 48% of those that moved in the past year do not currently have a pay-TV service. This is a higher level than in any previous year;
• 42% of renters and 33% of homeowners do not have a pay-TV service;
• 33% of non-subscribers last had a pay-TV service within the past three years, 37% last had a pay-TV service over three years ago, and 30% never had a pay-TV service; 
• Among those that never had a pay-TV service, 63% are ages 18-34, compared to 24% of former pay-TV subscribers;
• The mean age of traditional pay-TV subscribers is 49.3 – compared to 42.5 among non-subscribers, and 40.8 with vMVPD-only;
• Among all pay-TV subscribers, the mean reported spending per month is $112.70 – 5% higher than the mean monthly spending in 2018.

The assessment is based on a survey of 1,769 adults.

Vertical Systems Group’s first Leaderboard assessing the suppliers used for U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN services consists of Cisco (featuring Meraki MX, SD-WAN), VMware (SD-WAN by Velocloud), Fortinet (FortiGate), Versa Networks (Secure SD-WAN) and HPE Aruba (EdgeConnect SD-WAN). The suppliers are listed in descending order by market share.

Each supplier has 5% or more of the total number of SD-WAN sites installed and billable as of June 30. A site is counted once per supplier regardless of the amount of equipment installed, according to VSG.

Carrier Managed SD-WAN

Below the Leaderboard category is a category that VSG calls the Market Player category.

Suppliers in this segment have less than 5% of the total U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN customer sites. For mid-2023, these companies include Adaptiv Networks, Arista, Barracuda, Cradlepoint, Ecessa, Extreme Networks, FatPipe, Forcepoint, GFI Software, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Lavelle Networks, Mushroom Networks, Netscaler, Nuage Networks from Nokia, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Riverbed, Teldat, WatchGuard and others.

The list – which does not include some Market Players – is in alphabetical order.

VSG offered highlights about the U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN sector:

• Carrier managed SD-WAN sites in the U.S. are projected to surpass one million by 2027. These sites are managed by a network operator, utilize an SDN architecture, enable dynamic optimization of site connectivity and provide centralized network control with visibility end-to-end.
• Technology suppliers providing SD-WAN equipment to service providers may also supply secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE) technology. A SASE Service Framework (MEF 117) was finalized by MEF in October 2022. There is no industry standard for SSE.
• Some service providers, including Hughes and Aryaka, deploy SD-WAN with internally developed SD-WAN platforms.
• Security integration was cited as a top challenge in 2022 for managed SD-WAN service providers offering two or more different SD-WAN platforms. Some providers are integrating security across five or more SD-WAN solutions.
• Four LEADERBOARD companies — Cisco, VMware, Fortinet, and Versa – have attained MEF 3.0 SD-WAN technology certification.

The global wearables market segment made a comeback in the second quarter of 2023 with shipments of 116.3 million devices and a year-over-year growth of 8.5% according to International Data Corp.’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Data Tracker.

It’s not all good news for vendors, however. The average selling price declined as competition increased and retailers sought to reduce excess inventory, IDC said. The category also had declined for the two previous quarters before this rebound.

Worldwide Wearable Shipments

Q2 was characterized by more competition from outside the top five companies, which created opportunities for smaller players like Withings and Whoop. Basic features, such as steps taken and distance run, helped the fitness category establish itself.

Consumers are now looking for more holistic features such as sleep monitoring, recovery metrics, readiness scores and stress level tracking, according to Jitesh Ubrani, IDC’s research manager for mobility and consumer device trackers. 

IDC predicts that 520 million wearables will be shipped this year, which is a 5.6% increase over 2022. The top three categories are earwear (320.7 million shipments in 2023 and 4.5% growth rate compared to 2022), smart watches (165.4 million; 11.3%) and wristbands (32.0 million, 8.8% decline). The “other” category is expected to have shipments of 1.8 million units this year and 6.8% growth.

IDC expects wearables to reach 625.4 million units shipped by the end of 2027, a compound annual growth rate of 4.7%.

In June, IDC had predicted a 2023 rebound to 504.1 million units, which was slightly lower than its current prediction of 520 million shipments.