The rollout was first done administratively as a separate unit, but it has been successful enough that Sprint is now integrating fixed wireless broadband into its regular corporate offerings and structure. The potential market for the technology is huge. Forrester Research estimates that 45.8 million households will have broadband connections to the Internet by 2005, up from 2.8 million today. The researchers expect increased availability, greater competition and lower prices to kick broadband adoption into hypergrowth this year. The FCC is similarly bullish, writing in an August report that analysts envision residential high-speed subscribers to increase to 35 million by the end of 2004, up from 1.9 million in early 2000.
Analysts see revenue potential in the connectivity.
This potential market has companies pursuing a gold rush whose wild enthusiasms will soon punctuate the airwaves and print media because, the fact is, Americans don't much care how their high-speed Internet access is delivered. And because the annoyance and inconvenience of switching from one service to another can be great, the first technology to arrive at the doorstep is likely to be the one that consumers stick with. As Conway says, it will be only one leg of the stool. But it will almost certainly provide a kick in the pants to those technologies, which have been plagued with technical, service and installation problems. The companies flocking into this space are all trying to differentiate their products.