It is no secret that these aggressive valuations are based on extracting substantially greater revenue from subscribers. Only now are service providers fully appreciating that in order to achieve their monetary goals the services need to be distributed to more than one location in the home. Thus the broadband residential gateway goes beyond a simple broadband access modem and has to be able to enable, as well as straddle, multiple in-home networks. These in-home networks will run on different media and will implement different communication and transport protocols. While the additional cost of provisioning and supporting in-home networks is a concern for service providers, it also presents an opportunity.
Service providers can differentiate themselves by delivering a unique collection of services.
This will enable newer services, such as digital audio, that take advantage of the fat pipe into the home. The deployment of a residential gateway should also reduce consumer churn. The initial services of broadband residential gateways are data and voice-oriented. While there is a demonstrable market for data services, most service providers are very interested in IP-enabled voice services. This will allow the service provider to create a bundle of broadband data services as well as additional voice lines.