Others suggest that in-home entertainment, such as Net access and cable TV, becomes more important to consumers who tend to shun movie theaters and dining out as forms of recreation during a recession. Broadband backers also point to cable television's resilience during prior economic downturns as reason for optimism. Making predictions is an uncertain game, however, because the Internet has not had to weather a broad U.S. economic downturn since it began flourishing during the hard-charging 1990s. Whether the U.S. economy is headed for a recession or not is debatable, but the economic climate has certainly cooled after years of expansion in the '90s. Last week's stock market plunge was just the latest dip for stocks, which already have been battered in the past year.
Consumers tend to be more cautious about their discretionary spending in financially tough times.
Thus, if the economy continues to slow, broadband Net access could lose some of its luster when it comes time to pay the mortgage, buy groceries and shell out for life's other necessities. The economy is a factor. For me DSL is nonessential. Demand is still picking up for this product. But even if demand slacks, we're still going to see a large increase in the number of customers.