According to research from Park Associates, the demand for high-bandwidth applications will shoot up in the coming years as the number of households worldwide with broadband will reach close to 650 million by 2013.

 

In 2008, the number of broadband households worldwide grew by over 18 percent to exceed 400 million. Asia-Pacific is the largest market, with over 160 million subscribers. The report predicts that the region will contribute for over 49 percent of the global broadband market share by 2013.

 

“The need for information and communication services persists despite current recessionary economic conditions,” said Jayant Dasari, research analyst, Parks Associates (News - Alert), in a statement. “Consumers are less likely to cancel Internet access and broadband services than other residential services, such as phone services, pay TV, and monitored security.”

 

This trend, according to the report “Broadband Services: Global Outlook” calls for continuous investment in network technologies to accommodate multiple services such as video-on-demand and converging social-networking applications.

 

Dasari added that with the commoditization of bandwidth, service providers have had to adjust business models to remain competitive, which includes marketing bundled services

 

Various broadband stimulus packages and the availability of value-added services will further boost this trend, the report said.

 

In the United States, the federal government has announced billions of dollars from the stimulus package to promote expansion of affordable high-speed Internet services in rural areas. This initiative by the Obama administration will open new areas in the country to advanced online services, Park Associates (News - Alert) said.

 

According to Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates, bandwidth will remain as the focus area since operators will have to re-architect their existing networks to deliver multiple services over the same infrastructure.

 

However, Scherf said that bandwidth alone cannot win subscribers in this highly competitive era. Operators have to look for opportunities to increase ARPU by blending applications and combining services such as online video and customer support.

 

Furthermore, he said, they should offer innovative services, which can differentiate one another and then compete on factors beyond pricing or raw bandwidth.