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Entries in Statistics (106)

Monday
Apr232012
DateMonday, April 23, 2012 at 12:04PM

Broadband Investment Continues to Hold Steady in 2011

Source: USTelecom Press Release

According to a USTelecom research brief, the broadband industry invested nearly $66 billion in the nation’s information infrastructure in 2011, with wireline providing the largest portion of capital. Data from this 2011 research updates a data series published last year which documents the amount of capital broadband providers have invested since 1996. Through 2011, broadband providers have invested approximately $1.2 trillion.  

In 2011 wireline broadband providers invested nearly $27 billion, according to the study. From 1996 through 2011, wireline broadband providers invested approximately $640 billion in broadband infrastructure. Also, wireline contributed the largest portion of industry capital in 2011: 41 percent, compared to 40 percent for wireless and 19 percent for cable. High-speed fixed access and fiber core networks are essential to carry the large volume of data traffic, which has grown from the equivalent of 8.3 million DVDs per month in 2000 to more than 1.4 billion DVDs per month in 2010, and is expected to triple again over the next five years.

Consumer video over fixed networks remains the largest driver of bandwidth demand at more than two-thirds of U.S. data traffic in 2010 and approaching three-quarters in the next five years. Nearly all of U.S. wireless data traffic, the fastest growing data traffic segment, utilizes fixed network connections.

With nearly $66 billion invested in 2011, the broadband industry remains committed to deploying more and better broadband across the country. Nearly all Americans have a choice of multiple broadband providers, 96 percent of Americans--up one percent from 2010, now have access to fixed broadband.

Read the research brief.

AuthorDeborah Rand | Comments Off | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Wednesday
Apr182012
DateWednesday, April 18, 2012 at 11:23AM

Study Released by FTTH Council Explores Existing Gigabet to the Home

Source: FTTH Council Press Release

Early adopters of gigabit fiber optic service are online for three times the daily average of Internet users and tend to have relatively complex home networks supporting five or more devices, according to a study released by the Fiber-to-the-Home Council Americas.

The report, provided to the Council by Telecom Thinktank and RVA LLC, offers a glimpse into the small but growing community of gigabit Internet users who are receiving their service from one of more than a dozen telecoms that now offer the service in locations throughout the world.  Gigabit subscribers were surveyed to determine their motivation and utilization of the ultra-high speed broadband access.

Download the report here.

Among the network operators now offering gigabit service to homes in the United States are EPB in Chattanooga TN, Paxio and Sonic.net in California, and Lafayette Utilities in Louisiana.  Early gigabit providers in other regions of the world include Telia in Sweden, ZON in Portugal, Turkcell Superonline in Turkey, and NTT and KDDI in Japan.  Most of the 2012 gigabit service offerings are symmetrical, with both upload and download clocking in at a full gigabit per second.

Among the global network operators, it is estimated that the total number of residential subscribers receiving gigabit service is still in the hundreds.  However, the report anticipates that the number will grow significantly over the next year as large gigabit-enabled FTTH services are rolled out in South Korea and Singapore, and by Google in Kansas City in the United States.  RVA estimates that another 20 small, US-based FTTH providers, including municipal and competitive networks and some small local phone companies, are currently rolling out a gigabit service offering.

In their user survey, Telecom Thinktank and RVA found that the current crop of gigabit subscribers are:

  • Online an average of 8 hours per day, compared with the U.S. Internet user average of 2.5 hours per day.
  • The "earliest of early adopters," with relatively complex home networks consisting of five or more network devices.  In the U.S., 12 percent of gigabit users had 10 or more networked devices in their homes.
  • Content creators, as Hong Kong Broadband's traffic measurements show its gigabit subscribers using three times the upload bandwidth when compared to their download use.  Upload speed is critical for distributing HD photos and videos, efficient "cloud computing" and virtual presence video conferencing.

The report found that most of the telecoms providing gigabit service are doing so to establish themselves as the undisputed market leaders in bandwidth and connectivity, and to enable them to offer ultra-low latency and bundle values to technophiles and high-bandwidth users requiring a large pipe to support multiple devices and services.  Network operators also cited the appeal of superfast connectivity to work-at-home professionals requiring low latency and rapid file transfers.

Pricing for gigabit service ranges from a low of US$26 per month from Hong Kong Broadband to a high of US$560 per month at network operator Turkcell.  None of the network operators providing gigabit service was found to cap subscriber bandwidth usage. 

AuthorDeborah Rand | Comments Off | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Monday
Apr162012
DateMonday, April 16, 2012 at 8:48AM

US Wireless Penetration at 104.6 Percent

Source: CTIA Press Release

The amount of wireless data transmitted by Americans continues to increase at an impressive rate, as the CTIA-The Wireless Association semi-annual survey revealed. The annual U.S. wireless data traffic grew 123 percent from 2010 (388 billion megabytes) to 2011 (866.7 billion megabytes).

According to the survey, there was a 43 percent increase in the number of active smartphones and wireless-enabled PDAs in 2011 (111.5 million) compared with 2010 (78.2 million). With almost 95 percent of these devices capable of transmitting wireless data, Americans’ voracious appetite for anywhere and anytime mobile access is why the wireless industry needs more spectrum.

In order to handle Americans’ demand for wireless data, mobile providers continued to make significant investments in their infrastructure, from upgrading networks from 3G to 4G to increasing the number of cell sites to improve coverage and capacity. In 2011, they reported $25.3 billion in capital expenditures, which was up 2 percent from 2010. Since 2001, wireless providers invested $246 billion in capital expenditures, so they can meet consumers’ demands for wireless access anytime and anywhere. This number does not include the billions that wireless companies paid the U.S. government to license spectrum. Also important to meeting demand was the 2009 FCC shot clock ruling that required local governments to make decisions on tower siting proposals within specific timeframes. 2011 was the largest annual increase of operational cell sites with 283,385 at year-end, which was 30,299 more than 2010.

The 12-month survey results for 2011 are:

  • Wireless subscriber connections: 331.6 million (104.6 percent penetration); Dec. 2010: 311 million (7 percent increase).
  • Wireless network data traffic: 866.7 billion megabytes; Dec. 2010: 388 billion megabytes (123 percent increase).
  • Active smartphones and wireless-enabled PDAs: 111.5 million; Dec. 2010: 78.2 million (43 percent increase).
  • Number of active data-capable devices: 295.1 million; Dec. 2010: 270.5 million (9 percent increase).
  • Wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems: 20.2 million; Dec. 2010: 13.6 million (49 percent increase).
  • Minutes of Use (MOU): 2.296 trillion; Dec. 2010: 2.241 trillion (2 percent increase)
  • SMS sent and received: 2.304 trillion; Dec. 2010: 2.052 trillion (12 percent increase).
  • MMS sent and received: 52.8 billion; Dec. 2010: 56.6 billion.
  • Average local monthly wireless bill (includes voice and data service): $47.00; Dec. 2010: $47.21.
AuthorDeborah Rand | Comments Off | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Sunday
Apr152012
DateSunday, April 15, 2012 at 9:50AM

Video Streaming Drives Rural Internet Traffic

Source: Calix Press Release

Calix, Inc. (NYSE:CALX) announced the availability of its Calix U.S. Rural Broadband Report. Based on analysis of data aggregated from 45 U.S. communications service providers, this report provides new insights into Internet application and usage patterns among rural Americans. Report data was drawn from actual Internet traffic monitored in U.S. service provider networks from the fourth quarter (October through December) of 2011.

Video streaming accounted for 67 percent of down stream Internet traffic and 13 percent of upstream traffic in the studied networks. Large content distribution networks (CDNs) such as Level3, Limelight, and Akamai -- which carry video content from sites like Netflix and YouTube -- accounted for 80 percent of all streamed video traffic. In terms of upstream traffic, business services generated the most, accounting for 53 percent of all upstream traffic.

Additional findings from the inaugural Q4 2011 report include:

  • Service providers that offer Internet services exclusively over fiber access networks saw subscribers generate over 2.67 times more traffic than service providers that offered Internet services over copper-based networks.
  • The top five percent of subscribers in the rural U.S. networks studied used more than 100 GB of downstream traffic a month, and accounted for approximately 50 percent of Internet traffic.

Application use varied across different regions of the U.S. in Q4:

  • The West: Streamed video more heavily than other regions.
  • The Southeast: Played the most online video games. 
  • The Northeast: Shopped online more heavily than other regions.
  • The Midwest: Used business-oriented services in the home most frequently.
AuthorDeborah Rand | Comments Off | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Wednesday
Apr112012
DateWednesday, April 11, 2012 at 9:46AM

Could Pay-TV Subscription Bills Top $200 by 2020?

Source: NPD Group Press Release

According to The NPD Group the average pay-TV subscription for basic pay-TV service and premium-TV channels in the U.S. reached $86 in 2011. As TV program licensing fees have risen, pay TV monthly rates have also grown an average of 6 percent per year, even as consumer household income has remained essentially flat. If nothing changes, NPD expects the average pay-TV bill to reach $123 by the year 2015 and $200 by 2020.

According to information from NPD’s recent “Digital Video Outlook” report, 16 percent of U.S. households do not currently subscribe to pay-TV services. A sharp rise in housing vacancies due to the mortgage crisis alone has led to five million fewer U.S. households viewing pay-TV services. Total pay-TV subscriptions in the US have not declined much, due to bulk-service pay-TV contracts with apartment complexes and home owners associations that have allowed pay-TV operators to retain subscriptions in vacant homes.

Based on the latest information from NPD’s “Entertainment Trends in America” report, pay-TV cord cutters reported cancelling their subscriptions primarily because of economic considerations; however, they are still accessing TV programming from free-to-air broadcast, free Internet TV, as well as via lower-priced subscription video-on-demand (S-VOD) services, like Netflix.

“Despite the plethora of OTT options for movies and TV, most consumers want their pay-TV providers to be central and relevant to the acquisition and viewing experience,” said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group.  In fact 59 percent of pay-TV subscribers preferred having one single provider for their pay-TV services, compared to 21 percent who desired multiple providers, and 21 percent who expressed no preference. Sixty-two percent of subscribers wanted premium TV either delivered by their pay-TV provider directly, or from a service affiliated with their pay-TV provider. Only 20 percent of pay-TV subscribers were likely to cancel their pay-TV service, if they could get their favorite shows online.

AuthorDeborah Rand | Comments Off | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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