BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.
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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Average Online Hours for a Broadband User Who Spends Nine Waking Hours at Home 2.7 Traditional TV (Cable, Of-Air, DVD) Online: Communication/ Personal 2.6 Work 1.6 Online TV 0.6 Source: RVA LLC Consumers now spend much more time online than they spend watching traditional TV programming on traditional TVs. On average, broadband customers spend more than half their waking hours at home online – about twice as much time as they spend watching traditional TV programs on a traditional TV. Internet Usage by FTTH Subscribers Activities Completed at Least Once per Month 2013 2010 81% Shopping online 68% 36% Uploading large fles 25% 24% Using VoIP for audio calls 10% 23% Download/streaming video to TV 5% 20% Uploading video content to Internet 13% 19% Two-way videoconferencing 7% Source: RVA LLC Uploading large fles, especially for video, is becoming more common. Since 2010, growth in many online activities has been startling. Users Are More Satisfed With FTTH Percent "Very Satisfed" With Aspects of Data Service Streaming quality Consistency of speed Broadband speed (download) Broadband speed (upload) 42% 53% 53% 51% FTTH 19% 35% Wireless 26% 27% 20% 31% DSL 27% 26% 23% Cable 36% 32% 31% COST SAVINGS FOR CARRIERS Carriers continue to report signifcantly lower operating costs for FTTH than for other broadband technologies. Te reported savings are generally in the 20 to 30 percent range, with a ffth of the companies reporting savings higher than 30 percent. Tose that report lower savings tend to be deployers just getting started with FTTH. Verizon is by far the largest FTTH deployer, of course, and Verizon ofcials informally report savings in the 80 to 90 percent range compared with copper networks. Households connected to FTTH enjoy the lowest prices per Mbps (great for customers) and pay the highest fees (great for carriers). Fiber-connected consumers reported monthly bills that averaged $151. Users of other broadband technologies reported $109. Users who have no bandwidth caps and who enjoy high-bandwidth tiers now routinely use more than 20 Mbps for data downloads and another 20 Mbps for HD video. Both uses have more than doubled since 2007. FTTH download speeds are double to triple those for cable-based technologies. Upload speeds are seven times higher (2 Mbps versus 14 Mbps median speed). FTTH deployments are growing – and accelerating as the recession ends – simply because they ofer more to customers. v Source: RVA LLC FTTH customers are far more satisfed with their connections than customers who use other connection technologies. 38 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com Corporate editor Steve Ross can be reached at steve@bbcmag.com. | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013