Study: Broadband penetration to surge by 2010

Nearly 71 million households in the United States will have broadband access by 2010, a new study by Forrester Research predicts.

This will be a significant jump from the current level of broadband access. Last year, 29 percent of North American households connected to the Net via broadband. This number will be 62 percent by 2010, Forrester said. For the study, 68,000 households were polled on technology adoption, covering 347 brands in sectors such as devices, media, telecommunications, retail, finance and health care.

Factors such as lower prices, enhanced home support and better communication of benefits will fuel broadband growth, Forrester said, citing examples of providers like SBC Communications and Comcast.

By 2010, 53 percent U.S. households will own a laptop, while 37 percent will use a digital video recorder to control their television watching. With more gadgets and PCs in the home, networking will also grow to 46.5 million households by 2010. At present, 8.8 percent of households have a home network.

Media habits are also in for a change with greater technology adoption, the study says. Households with a laptop and home network watch three fewer hours of television per week and read the paper an hour less per week than offline households do. Currently only 6 percent of online consumers read blogs and 2 percent use RSS, while 70 percent of online consumers use the Internet to research products for purchase.

The number of households engaging in online research and buying will be more than 55 million by 2010, the study predicts. Last year, 39.5 million U.S. households shopped online--3.5 million more than in the previous year.

"The rise of consumers' adoption of personal devices, home networking, and broadband, combined with the increasing importance of the Internet in media, retail, banking, and healthcare, means that every consumer-facing industry must better understand the intricacies of technology adoption and use," Ted Schadler, vice president at Forrester, said in a statement.

For more findings from this study, click here.