Service provider home networks to reach 71mn homes by 2012, says new report

January 23, 2008 – Service providers are rapidly increasing their deployments of residential gateways for connected home applications, and will reach 71mn households globally by 2012, according to a new report from Parks Associates.

“Service providers worldwide are scrambling to add value to broadband, communications and other services,” said Kurt Scherf, Vice President and Principal Analyst for Parks Associates.  “Connected home strategies are focusing on advanced customer premises equipment and related services that provide significant enhancements to both subscribers and service providers. 

“As 2008 International CES demonstrated, home networking products aimed at the service provider community are growing in sophistication as carriers seek to enhance the features and applications available to their subscribers.”

Mr. Scherf added that the strategy for residential gateways and other CPE deployments begins with value-added features such as multiroom DVR and streaming multimedia applications, enhanced communications features and home monitoring.  Following this, Mr. Scherf believes that service providers are finding that the deployment of remotely manageable customer premises equipment provides significant benefits, both in reduced customer support costs and the opportunity to up-sell subscribers on digital home support services.