In its recently released Global Consumer Fixed-Line & Media Forecast, the Yankee Group has predicted dramatic growth in broadband and digital TV, driving the global consumer services market to more than $475 billion by 2008.
The forecast demonstrates that global broadband household penetration, which stood at 3.4 percent in 2002, will rise to 16 percent by 2008. The survey summary notes the great variability of what is deemed as broadband across the globe. The average customer in Europe gets 512Kb/s, while in Japan and Korea, 6Mb/s is not unusual.
In the United States, where most customers are accessing broadband via cable modem, 1.5Mb/s is the typical speed.
While it is clear that broadband and digital TV are having the greatest overall impact, it interesting to note large regional differences in consumer services spending, according to Yankee Group vice president for Consumers, Media and Entertainment Boyd Peterson.
While Western European spending on calls from fixed-line phones will drop by half between 2004 and 2008, and will fall greatly in North America as well, fixed-line call revenue will rise strongly in some emerging economies such as China and Brazil, he said.
For more information, visit www.yankeegroup.com.
