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Due to Unfamiliarity, Few Americans Subscribe to Broadband, Experts Say

Posted on: Monday, 14 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 14--TAMPA, Fla.--You've heard of it. And you might have seen it in action at work.

But you're not alone if you're not sure what broadband is, experts say. Unfamiliarity is partly why few Americans have subscribed to the Internet service.

Well here's your chance to catch up with the technology that experts say has changed how, when and where you do what you do, but most certainly has the potential to revolutionize your life very soon.

"This is the backbone of our communications system for the 21st century," said Chris Murray, an expert on broadband and legal counsel for the Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports.

Simply put, broadband is high-speed Internet.

It is, in some cases, downloading from the Internet at speeds 50 times faster than with a dial-up modem. It is shorter waits for pages to load: Graphics that take minutes to arrive via dial- up can pop up in seconds, and music and video that once took hours might take minutes.

When it comes to the Internet, the difference in speed of dial- up and broadband is like the tortoise and the hare, except the performance of the faster broadband is more assured to whip its challenger.

So, how do you get there?

Several technologies have emerged over the years to quickly connect people to the Internet.

Data transmissions that allow us to surf Web pages, download and listen to music, watch videos online and make telephone calls across the Internet primarily travel across telephone lines (copper wire), coaxial cable, the air with wireless towers and satellite, and fiber-optic cable.

Cable, digital subscriber line, satellite and wireless are the most reliable technologies for broadband. But emerging access technologies include transmitting data over fiber-to-the- home and power lines.

Cable connections, like those offered by Bright House Networks in the greater Tampa area, make up about 65 percent of the broadband market. DSL, offered by Verizon locally and other Internet service providers, has about one-third of the market. The other technologies lag far behind.

Because of the ubiquitousness of cable, consumers often consider it to be more reliable than DSL. But experts said the reliability is about the same. And speeds on DSL have closed the gap on cable broadband.

To take advantage of high-speed Internet, in "Your Guide to Broadband Living & Content," Verizon Communications suggests that you're ready to surf with broadband if your computer is no more than 2 years old.

To maximize your broadband surfing, you'll need the fastest computer you can afford (think processing speed) with the most random access memory (RAM), which helps power your computer programs.

Inside the computer, you'll need a network card, which allows you to connect to a high- speed modem for broadband access.

Once you're connected, antivirus software and software known as a firewall are suggested to help protect your computer from attack by hackers.

Tom Thayer, vice president and assistant general manager at the independent telecommunications company Covad, said many companies developing products, services and content for the Web are assuming people have high-end computers in their homes.

And Stephen Pociask, president of TeleNomic Research, said an indication of how the Internet has affected our society is the fact that network cards and modems are standard hardware when people purchase computers.

Still, just 15 percent of the 107 million households in the United States subscribe to broadband, and 16 million households with high-speed Internet access represent 21 percent of the homes capable of receiving broadband service, according to a 2002 report from The Yankee Group, a Boston telecommunications research firm.

Dominic Ainscough, a consumer technologies and services analyst with The Yankee Group, says that figure will grow to 48 million households by 2007.

Pociask, whose firm specializes in public policy analysis for the information technology industry, said regulations from the Federal Communications Commission have been a drag on the growth of broadband.

The cable industry, which reaches more than 90 percent of the U.S. market, is virtually unregulated when it comes to broadband, partly explaining why cable owns the lion's share of the high-speed Internet market.

But regulation of the telecommunications industry, aimed at allowing competition, has discouraged telephone companies from improving and building out their systems to extend broadband to more homes, Pociask said.

"It's preventing investment, and without that, it won't drive down prices," he said.

In February, the FCC gave telephone companies a signal the commission wants to encourage further deployment of broadband. Commissioners said the incumbent local exchange companies including Verizon, SBC Communications and BellSouth won't have to lease new fiber lines to competitors at below-market rates.

Although the FCC hasn't released its final order, Verizon, the nation's largest local telephone company, announced it plans to increase the availability of broadband from 60 percent of its customers to 80 percent by the end of this year.

Murray, of the Consumers Union, said the slow deployment of broadband has hurt the economy and slowed the creation of products that could help consumers. It also has kept telephone companies from competing with cable operators.

"Broadband really holds the key not only to local cable operations but also to local telephone service," he said.

This year, Verizon and SBC slashed the price they charge for DSL from the mid- to high-$40 range to $35 and cheaper if purchased with other telephone services. Both companies -- which have partnered with MSN and Yahoo, respectively, to provide content, too -- have seen huge gains in requests for service, although cable broadband is still the clear winner.

Bob Elek, spokesman for Verizon, agreed part of the slow deployment of broadband has been because of regulations. But consumers also have considered high-speed Internet to be too expensive, he said.

Experts agree price will be key to getting people to sign on to broadband. And prices will drop while access speeds increase, said Thayer, Covad's vice president.

But what mainly will drive people to broadband are the services and products: paying bills online, watching movies, talking to distant relatives and friends, listening to new music releases, sharing photos and e-mail and conducting research.

"Broadband is going to be the pipe through which everything is delivered to the premise," Elek said.

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(c) 2003, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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