According to Parks Associates, more than 60% of U.S. broadband households with a networking router received that device from their broadband service provider. The research house says operators can enhance that equipment to expand their footprint in the home and create new revenue opportunities and secure their role as key players in the connected home.
"Operators have an established claim in the connected home by virtue of their existing customer relationships, but they are competing with many new products that promise improved WiFi, smart home and voice controls, and enhanced data privacy and security. U.S. broadband households now have an average of 9.1 connected devices," said Brad Russell, research director, Connected Home, Parks Associates. "Providers can integrate these and other features into the equipment (CPE) they are deploying into subscribers' homes, consolidating multiple home services under unified support and premium WiFi coverage."
Other findings indicate:
- 76% of North American broadband households use WiFi as their primary connected technology.
- 26% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart home device, and annual sales of all connected home devices are expected to increase to 442 million units by 2020.
- In the past year, 37% of U.S. broadband households report that their WiFi network seems slow.
"If operators want to compete effectively in the connected home, they will need to add value through premium CPE and a quality consumer experience," Russell said. "They already shoulder the blame when things go wrong with WiFi and the network, so they cannot continue to cede ground to new devices while their own services become commoditized."