Broadband Makes Itself at Home

Just as consumers quickly dropped their black-and-white TV sets, a rapidly growing number of Internet subscribers are abandoning their dial-up accounts in favor of new forms of Internet access that are 10 to 20 times faster, easier to use, and able to provide vivid, interactive multimedia content. But it's unclear which medium--optical fiber, copper telephone wires, coaxial cable, or wireless radio spectrum--will dominate delivery to the home.

As multimedia Internet content becomes increasingly common, residential subscribers are demanding the same fast and flexible access that business networks have long enjoyed. It's clear that consumers want Web-based video, music, telephony, multiplayer games, and other digital multimedia content. But it's unclear which medium --optical fiber, copper telephone wires, coaxial cable, or wireless radio spectrum--will dominate delivery to the home.

An equally intriguing question: How will consumers use broadband digital data once it arrives? The days of simply surfing the Web at a single connected computer are long gone. Now consumers receive digital content and use it throughout the house, on multiple devices: computers, televisions, MP3 players, game consoles, digital cameras, and sound systems. The modern home has become a digital network, and several technologies are vying to become the de facto standard in this emerging market.

Broad Choices for Top Speed

People know a good thing when they see it. Just as consumers quickly dropped their black-and-white TV sets, a rapidly growing number of Internet subscribers are abandoning their dial-up accounts in favor of new forms of Internet access that are 10 to 20 times faster, easier to use, and able to provide vivid, interactive multimedia content.

• DSL provides high-speed, high-volume data transfer over copper telephone wires. Worldwide DSL subscriptions topped 41 million households in March, giving DSL nearly 57 percent of the worldwide broadband installed base, according to analyst firm Point Topic.
• Coaxial cable comes in a strong second in worldwide delivery of broadband Internet service with 38 percent penetration, perhaps because it is already widely used for television delivery to homes. In the United States cable remains much more popular than DSL, with twice as many subscribers. This reflects both cable television's success and a more widely dispersed population that can't get access to DSL more than three miles from a phone company's central office.
• Optical fiber offers some of the fastest data-transfer rates of any medium, and the Fiber to the Home council predicts that fiber will reach nearly 1.4 million homes by the end of 2004. BellSouth, Verizon, and SBC Communications recently agreed on a common set of specifications for fiber to the home, which could accelerate consumer adoption.
• Wireless broadband is making wireless Internet access increasingly popular for mobile devices, due to the recent emergence of the 802.11, or Wi-Fi, standard for local-area networks.

Meanwhile, technologies such as satellite broadband and fixed wireless provide high-speed Internet access in places with limited cable or DSL coverage. Both varieties of broadband have more traction among small and medium-size businesses than among consumers, however.

The Federal Communications Commission in April voted to solicit public comment on a relatively new technology called broadband over power line (BPL). The commission is looking for ways to speed broadband uptake nationwide, but before it champions BPL it wants to find out if the technology interferes with existing radio frequency spectrum devices such as garage door openers and police radios.

Home Is Where the Network Is

As broadband media deliver new and more diverse content to the home, consumers are discovering that they are no longer tethered to a single point of access. Where a computer connected to a DSL jack or cable outlet was once the only speedy gateway to the Internet, homeowners now access the Web on multiple computers and devices throughout the house, recording movies on digital video players, or playing video games with their children, each in a different room.

The most popular in-home network technology is Wi-Fi, which allows complete mobility of access for any properly configured device--from a laptop to a handheld computer to an MP3 player. However, the wireless signal can grow weak over great distances and there are many sources of interference, including cordless phones and microwave ovens.

An alternative in-home network technology is coaxial cable, and several companies have introduced products that turn cable into high-speed networks for a variety of Internet-enabled devices.

Category 5 telephone wiring--which is increasingly available, especially in brand-new homes--also can serve as the infrastructure for an in-home network, providing a broadband network node wherever there is a telephone jack.

Power line networking uses a home's standard electrical wiring as the connection medium: Just plug a special adapter into an outlet, connect the adapter to a PC, and you're networked. The method drew raves from technology writer Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, who also lauded its ability to expand the limits of a Wi-Fi base station.

The Broadband Battle Has Begun

Clearly, in-home broadband has arrived. And it isn't just for early adopters: Seventy-five percent of homebuilders have incorporated broadband technologies into their new projects, according to a recent In-Stat/MDR survey. Another industry analyst firm, Parks and Associates, predicts half of all new homes will be prewired for broadband in 2004.

It remains to be seen which delivery technology will come to dominate this growing market, but as consumer demand for multimedia Internet content swells, the battle among broadband providers is sure to heat up.

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