Broadband internet digital divide will accelerate
September 18, 2009
Customers with broadband connections to high speed internet will experience much faster internet download speeds in the coming years while those with less-advanced connections will fall further behind, according to Gartner.
Gartner, the market research firm, said high speed residential broadband service supporting download speeds of 50 Mbps and above will become more available in urban areas in the next few years, taking high speed internet to the next level.
"Ultra broadband will exacerbate the digital divide among different world regions, as well as within countries," said Fernando Elizalde, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Governments in countries that lag behind in the deployment of ultra broadband will come under increasing pressure to use public funds to upgrade broadband infrastructure to avoid falling behind."
The need for internet service providers to acquire and retain customers is creating competitive pressure pushing service providers to use speed as a way of differentiating their services.
Those markets where there are multiple carriers targeting the same customers or where there is strong telecom carrier versus cable television broadband competition, will move fastest to better connection speeds, Gartner said.
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