Gartner: U.S. broadband penetration to be 77% by 2012

Maybe Verizon Communications President Denny Strigl was right when he suggested during a keynote speech at NXTcomm last month that the critics of U.S. broadband penetration should hush up. Market research firm Gartner reports that about 77% of U.S. households will have a broadband subscription 2012. According to gartner's projections, that will put the U.S. in a tie for 5th place worldwide (with Japan) for broadband penetration. U.S. broadband penetration by household currently is somewhere not far past 50%, and Gartner says wireless broadband technologies will drive much of the coming growth.

Still, within the last year, we have seen many predictions for slowing broadband growth. AT&T last week reported broadband subsciber additions of just 46,000 for the second quarter, and industry observers are awaiting other telco and cable TV players' earnings reports to see if the trickle is happening industry-wide.

For more:
- check out this report at Network World

Related articles:
Verizon prez Denny Strigl defended U.S. broadband at NXTcomm. Verizon report
Leichtman Research Group said broadband growth is the slowest in five years. Leichtman report