Consumers ready for new Internet products, tiered service plans, survey finds

There is consumer support for IP telephony services, a new study finds, despite the slow developments in the area. Much of the anticipated growth, however, will not come about until the technology improves, the report notes. That was one of the findings in State-of-the-Net: High-Speed Internet, a new report by NFO CFgroup of Toronto. The research firm had 1,005 online panelists answer questions on its web site at the end of March. The results were tabulated in a 30-page study, which the company is now selling to interested clients. When asked what intensive online services they would be interested in receiving, 37 per cent said PC-to-phone LD calling. That was good enough for second place, behind the 46 per cent who opted for remote education. Other options include Internet TV broadcasts (34 per cent), video-on-demand (32 per cent), digital online radio (31 per cent), and video conferencing (19 per cent). Twenty-four per cent of survey respondents said they were not interested in any of the offerings. "Due to lower voice quality and costs that are hardly any different than those offered by telcos, PC-to-phone long distance calling has not really taken off," the study notes. "Nevertheless, if improvements to quality of service are made, this may change, as there are quite a number of interested online Canadians." Online subscribers appear supportive of the move by telcos and cablecos to tiered Internet pricing (NL, Feb. 11/02). Users seem to be willing to switch from dial-up to a high-speed service, especially if the cost differs depending on use. Twenty-three percent said they would choose a "modest traffic" service (defined as general surfing, email, and modest downloading at 1Mbs or more for a medium price). "Light traffic" (general surfing, email, and light downloading at 1Mbs or more at a lower price) and "modest speed" (512 kps with no data traffic limits and a medium price) each drew the support of 22 per cent. NFO CFgroup found the technological divide has a linguistic component to it. While cable is more popular than DSL in homes where English is the predominant language (29 per cent to 18 per cent), in francophone homes cable and DSL each draw 20 per cent support. Another NFO CF report, Canadian Netizens, found that francophones are a smaller percentage of the online population than they are in the country as a whole. That study discovered that 79 per cent of the online community is anglophone and 21 per cent is French-speaking. The survey also found disparity in online Canadians by age, region and household income. The Netizens report is a monthly report; the High-Speed Internet study is part of a quarterly module produced by the researchers.

Consumers ready for new Internet products, tiered service plans, survey finds

News | 06/03/2002 4:00 am EDT

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