Despite reports to the contrary, the broadband access market is experiencing astounding growth, a telecom consultant reports.
The Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI), a consultant group, publisher, and trade show organizer headquartered in Boston, believes writers, analysts, and editors who have declared broadband access a failure are misguided or have political axes to grind. At a recent IGI seminar, President Paul Polishuk called the debate over broadband’s growth a “false issue.”
“While the broadband access market has many problems,” Polishuk said, “a strong, surging customer demand is not one.”
IGI cites a Dec. 13 Financial Times article as an example of reporting that distorts facts about the broadband access market.
Titled “Broadband’s Slow Start Hides Its Potential,” the article contains statistics for broadband growth that indicate a doubling of households served by broadband in 2001. IGI describes this as “very substantial growth in the face of recession, numerous xDSL resellers going bankrupt, broadband ISPs going bankrupt, a lack of effective marketing, 20% price increases, and...very limited broadband access availability.”
