Market trends

Speed is the core argument for the use of broadband technology – and the market is growing and changing just as fast.

This is a market of constantly changing applications and technologies, as well as high user expectations – which creates some specific challenges for broadband providers. Experts are quite clear about the nature of these challenges, naming customer service and product quality as key success factors in tomorrow’s broadband market (Fig. 15). Any provider hoping to succeed in this environment will have to be able to deliver on both of these expectations, at competitive prices. Other success factors were identified as mobile Internet, a quality innovations portfolio, and user integration.

Fig. 15:		Future challenges for broadband Internet providers (Broadband experts)

The rapid growth in the number of broadband Internet customers is matched by their ever-higher expectations. In the early days, simply getting access to broadband Internet was the main priority, but the focus has now moved to a comprehensive range of integrated services. This trend is confirmed by the broadband Internet experts in this survey (see Fig. 16). Over 78 percent of them attached a “high” or “very high” importance to the quality of broadband Internet products in the years ahead. The only area identified by the experts as even more important was the user-friendliness of terminal devices and innovative broadband applications, seen as a high priority by over 90 percent of respondents.

Fig. 16:		Future customer requirements for broadband Internet services (Broadband experts)

The consumers agreed here with the experts, with around 73 percent rating the importance of user-friendly terminal devices and applications as “high” or “very high.” However even higher priorities from their perspective were reasonable prices and customer services which responded flexibly and directly to individual consumer requirements. Other important future trends identified by consumers included the new Social Web applications, the trend towards personalized products, and convenient packages from broadband Internet providers (see Fig. 17).

Fig. 17:		Future trends in broadband Internet (Consumers)

So clearly, quality is going to become an even more important issue than it already is. Experts and consumers alike rate user-friendliness and ease of operation as extremely important. The experts identified a number of specific features involved in delivering user-friendly broadband Internet services (Fig. 18). Around 85 percent saw “seamless integration,” i.e. the seamless switch from mobile to fixed broadband and vice versa, as a key requirement for future broadband Internet consumers. Also rated as extremely important were the user-friendliness and personalization capability of broadband Internet applications and terminal devices.

Fig. 18:		User-friendliness as a specific trend in broadband Internet (Broadband experts)

Consumers want reasonably-priced and flexible broadband Internet, and have some specific expectations in the area of customer service. The next section will focus in greater detail on customer service as a success factor for the future.