US broadband growth is slowing but opportunities are coming

Aug/13/2008 06:17

The growth of broadband Internet connections is starting to level off in the US but what is even more troubling is that the US is far behind other countries in broadband speeds. The average broadband connection in the US is 2-3 Mps per second while countries Japan have speeds as high as 63 Mps per second. What does this mean for marketers? Well broadband is going to go through explosive growth again after some changes are made and marketers had better be ready to reach consumers on every device imaginable.

AT&T, which just launched it’s Universe broadband service, and Verizon, with its Vios service, are now looking at new pricing models which would lower the cost of broadband thus bringing millions of more customers online. At the same time the US market is ready for blazing fast speeds at an affordable price. Right now you can get super fast broadband but often the price is $150 or more a month.

As new service providers move to higher speeds and the economies of scale enter the business models service providers are also going to be looking a mobile devices. In counties like Korea and Japan Internet speeds on mobile devices are very fast and customers use their mobile devices a lot more. Here in the US with the new 3G iPhone it can still take over 17 seconds for a page to load which is archaic in 2008.

Pharma needs to be prepared for these changes and look at them as an opportunity to reach customers and prospects. This means more content that is customer based, better and more informative compliance programs and a better way to build a relationship with patients. Imagine if you will a series of video content that can be delivered to a mobile device that welcomes patients to a new medication and informs them what to expect and what they can do to stay healthy ? This means that pharma is going to have to think differently about their customers and ensure that customer needs are fulfilled first while leveraging business objectives.

Broadband speeds in the US are going to go through a rapid change as companies promote faster speeds to woo more customers away from competitors. For consumers this is a win-win situation but for marketers this is opportunity knocking on the door and trying to push it down !