The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) said in its latest report that 41.2 million Americans have broadband: Of course, let's just footnote that by noting that US broadband means higher than 200 Kpbs in at least one direction, so that 256 Kbps down/128 Kbps service is technically broadband. Still, not too many cavils need to apply, with the majority of broadband connections noted in other studies having at least 1 Mbps of downstream speed, with an increasing minority running 3 to 6 Mbps.
The TIA says 4.5m subscribers had broadband in 2000 before cable modems started to make inroads. Today, 17m broadband subscribers access the Internet over DSL and 22.5 via cable. The 2009 estimate is 69.2m total (23.8m DSL, 35.9m cable). Fixed and mobile wireless, satellite Internet, and fiber to the home will make up the difference, with nearly 10m subscribers across those technologies. The TIA estimate 1.5m fixed wireless and 2.0m mobile wireless subscribers.
The report projects hardly any decline in DSL price, although speed will increase, while cable prices will drop nearly 5 percent annualized over the next four years, also with faster speeds.
The report is $1,500 on paper, $1,800 on CD for non-members or $650 and $950, respectively, for members.