CATCHING UP TO THE PC

Information Gatekeepers Inc. has found an interesting context in which to couch its broadband predictions: PC ownership data. According to IGI, half of the nation's households owned a PC in 1998, but not a single one had a broadband hookup. Fast-forward 12 years, and broadband will have almost caught up: More than 80% of all households will have both a computer and a high-speed connection by 2010, IGI predicts.

It is also interesting to note the amount of traffic those connections are generating. Even with the measly broadband penetration in the U.S. in 2002, high-speed Internet traffic managed to outpace voice traffic on local access networks. And in the next few years, broadband traffic is expected to balloon, ultimately dwarfing the amount of voice traffic.