It’s still unclear how much demand for 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps broadband access exists, at prices suppliers are willing to offer, in European and North American markets. Significantly lower prices seem to be the key, according to Sonic.net.
Sonic.net sells fiber-supplied Internet at 100 Mbps for about $40 a month, and includes a home phone line with unlimited national calls. A 1-Gbps service costs about $70 per month, relative to the markets where it operates, in which Comcast offers broadband service with Internet speeds of 105 Mbps for about $200 a month.
Verizon’s?(News 
– Alert) FiOS service offering 150 Mbps costs about $200 per month.
In 2012, Sonic.net has gotten penetration substantially above what we have tended to see in other markets where such service is available.
In Sebastopol, Calif., about 39 percent of households are now Sonic.net customers. In Forestville, Calif., 20 percent of households are customers.
Healdsburg, Calif. has 11 percent take rates, along with Santa Rosa. Petaluma, Calif. has about five percent take rates.
The point is that making “superfast” broadband available is only part of the adoption story. There has to be demand, at prices consumers think are “fair,” and that suppliers can afford to offer. Sonic.net maintains that a “passing” costs about $500. So at 33 percent take rates, the cost per customer for the network is about $1,500 each.
But we will soon get additional tests of demand.
BT’s?(News – Alert) “Openreach” fiber to the home network now has reached about ten million premises across the United Kingdom, ahead of schedule. This is some months ahead of the original deadline for this figure, at the end of 2012. The FTTH network is expected to enable access speeds up to about 80 Mbps.
By some estimates, there have been 570,000 sales so far, both by BT and all wholesale partners, representing penetration of 5.8 percent. Of course, early in the deployment of any new fixed network, sales efforts necessarily are circumscribed as most of the work goes into physical construction.
To be sure, some will argue that BT and others have not moved fast enough.
Only about 14 percent of respondents to a survey currently see a need for speeds of 50 Mbps or higher, about five percent of the total 3,000 customer sample, and would imply a total nine percent penetration of super-fast broadband when added to the four percent who already have speeds over 50 Mbps, the Marketing Directors said.
Among the 35 percent who want a higher broadband speed, there was only a modest willingness to pay more. Around 42 percent of those who want a faster speed would not be prepared to pay more for it.
Another 25 percent would be prepared to pay up to €5 a month for their desired faster speed. About 15 percent would be prepared to pay over €15 a month for their desired faster speed.
Only about 35 percent of broadband owners currently see a need for faster broadband speeds, and only 20 percent are prepared to pay more for it. ?Of the 35 percent who do want faster speeds, about half would like to see their broadband speed double within two years.
Keep in mind “doubling” would generally be from about 7 Mbps, a typical capability for many customers.
Edited by Braden Becker
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