Report: 78% of U.S. Broadband Homes Have a Home Network

Opportunities to provide tech support are growing in the U.S. as home network routers are installed in more homes, according to a new whitepaper by Parks Associates and Support.com.

Seventy-eight percent of U.S. broadband households have a home network router and that’s driving demand for tech support, according to “Expanding to the Home Network: The Evolution of Premium Support.” Parks and Support.com forecast that the percentage of U.S. broadband households with home networks will increase to 95% by 2016, each with an average 4.5 connected devices running. While home network connectivity enhances the capabilities of all devices, it also poses challenges in the way of setup and troubleshooting, the companies note. “The adoption of connected devices and usage of high-bandwidth applications add new layers of complexity for the consumer,” Parks’ research analyst Patrice Samuels said.