Overall satisfaction among fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers reached a new high in 2011, with 74 percent stating they are “very satisfied” in a new study conducted by the FTTH Council. This compares favorably to customer satisfaction for cable users at 54 percent and 51 percent for DSL. Perhaps the only surprise is that “only” 74 percent were “very satisfied.” Read more here.
The study also indicates that 54 percent of cable modem subscribers are “very satisfied,” while 51 percent of digital subscriber line customers are “very satisfied.”Read more.
If you accept the theory that a “very satisfied” broadband access customer is unlikely to chrun then the FTTH customer base is substantially more protected than the cable modem or DSL customer bases.
But there is fairly good evidence that even when “satisfied,” customers will choose another provider. Satisfaction with the technical parameters of a service might not protect against a consumer leaving to get a better price on an equivalent service.
The study further estimates there are about 162,500 U.S. subscribers buying broadband access at 50 Mbps, and about 69,700 buying services at 100 Mbps. Keep in mind that there are some 86 milliion fixed line broadband accounts in the U.S. market. That’s about two-tenths of a percent of the fixed line market currently buying a service at 50 Mbps.
The survey of more than 2,000 broadband subscribers, drawn randomly from a nationally balanced panel of more than 3.2 million consumers by the market research firm RVA LLC also found that overall satisfaction among FTTH users continues to lead that of other broadband subscribers, with those answering “very satisfied” at 74 percent – up from 71 percent a year ago – compared to 54 percent for cable users and 51 percent for DSL.
As of April 2011, fiber to the home services were available to more than 18 percent of North American homes and were connected to more than seven million of them. RVA estimates that there are now 170,000 North American households receiving FTTH service with connection speeds of at least 100 megabits per second, and a total of 347,000 receiving 50 Mbps service. Both of these figures were more than double those from last year’s survey report.
With regard to cost of service relative to download connection speed, the RVA survey results showed FTTH subscribers paying $2.91 a month per megabit of bandwidth, compared to $3.83 for cable subscribers, $16.40 for DSL, and $49.38 per megabit for fixed wireless services.
