U.S. Broadband Growth Slows - Analyst

[dArKeR]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. telephone and cable companies saw the growth of high-speed Internet services slow in the second quarter to the lowest rate in a year, an industry research firm said on Tuesday.

While broadband growth typically slumps in the second quarter as college students disconnect for summer break, analysts have said overall sales of high-speed Internet connections were less than expected.

"There are now close to 30 million households with broadband, and that's a pretty robust number," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research. "It's not that the market is saturated, but clearly we've gone well past the low-hanging fruit."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=569&e=3&u=/nm/20040817/tc_nm/telecoms_broadband_dc

[bluestateguy]

1. In hard times, that can be the first thing to go

I know that when I was facing the prospect of losing my job (I did not), I concluded that I would have to go back to dial-up to save about 30$ a month.

[napi21]

2. I have broadband, but if they would lower the prices they'd get

a lot more subscribers! I think it's time they stopped amortizing the initial cost of their investment and reduce the prices to attract more subscribers. It would help them in the end.

[dumpster_baby]

3. They are gonna have to lower the price!

Broadband is very important to getting a vibrant internet community. Once we get everyone watching movies and TV on their computer, the barrier-to-entry for multimedia entertainment distribution will be greatly lowered, meaning that watching teevee won't necessarily mean getting a mindful of top-down corporate memes.

[daleo]

4. Perhaps there are forces that would prefer it stay relatively expensive

It keeps "the rabble" from having too much access to alternative points of view.