1 Gigabit Internet access will increase tenfold in 2016

Increased demand will be driven by greater availability and lower prices.

A total of 10 million users will have 1 Gigabit per second connections, ten times more than the previous year (70 percent will be residential connections), according to a study carried out by Deloitte which includes the predictions for this year 2016.

The increase in demand is likely to be driven by greater availability and lower prices. Deloitte anticipates that nearly 600 million subscribers could be on networks that offer a gigabit rate as of 2020, representing the majority of connected homes in the world.

Although the number of connections expected for 2016 is 250 million subscribers by the end of the year, this trend is expected to accelerate in the coming months.

Likewise, the delivery of speeds of 1 Gbps depend largely on the presence of fiber optics. Deloitte believes that while fiber to the home (FTTH) is expensive infrastructure, fiber to the premises (FTTP) and fiber to the base (FTTB) are available for high block speeds. Likewise, the cable industry has updated its networks to DOCSIS 3.1 that offer Gbps speeds.

Deloitte also considers that price will be an important driver, since while in 2012 the entry price for a 1 Gbps connection was $400, until the third quarter the average was $200 and there are packages starting at $50.

Access to the Deloitte study.