What next? Broadband over gas pipes

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 21 September 2005 16:24

Business IT - Technology

A US market research company claims that 70 percent of US households could get broadband services via radio signals 'piped' though the gas main.

The company, West Technology Research Solutions (WTRS) claims that ultra wideband radio technology could deliver twice the throughput of DSL for approximately the same installation cost. It will reveal more details with the release of its report on Broadband-in Gas (BiG) at a BiG Executive Seminar in San Diego, in which it claims over 40 utility companies and other potential players will participate.

WTRS says its study finds that BiG stands to add nearly 20 million subscribers to the overall market by 2010, out of a forecast 455 million broadband subscribers globally. The study also finds that BiG CPE equipment revenues will account for more than $US6.8 billion annually in 2009, with a compound annual growth rate of 194 percent.

According to WTRS "every company in the broadband market today is a potential player in the Broadband in Gas market. If the technology is embraced by enough large players, there is a very real possibility that BiG could become the ubiquitous POTS (plain old telephone service) line of the 21st century."