Alcatel Conducts Research on User Expectations for Broadband Services in High-Growth Economies

October 10, 2006; 07:12 AM
The study, conducted in August, 2006 on behalf of Alcatel by international research company LH2, interviewed approximately 3,000 Internet cafes and early broadband users in regional cities of seven high-growth economies: Brazil, Russia, Egypt, Kenya, India, China and Malaysia.

The survey provides insights for how entry-level broadband packages can be structured, as well as directions for future services targeting existing broadband users.

For example, the research indicates that payment options are an important area for innovation. While most of the respondents reported spending a high percentage of their income on communication services, half of the Internet café respondents did not possess a bank account. The majority of these users were familiar with prepaid payment on their mobile phone, and expected similar payment options for future personal broadband subscriptions accessed from home.

The study also provided ideas of future services to increase loyalty and ARPU among existing users. Fifty percent of those interviewed use their broadband connection for professional purposes, which suggests potential for specific "professional offers". Existing broadband users, show interest in seeing more video and image content, indicating the potential for future upgrades to higher-bandwidth, packages.

"This represents a huge growth market, which is at early adopter stage today in many countries. Understanding user needs and expectations with regards to broadband services is a key success factor for service providers as they prepare to deliver mass-market broadband services," says Valérie Faudon, VP Marketing Programs, in charge of Alcatel's "Broadband for All" program. "As broadband leader in high growth economies, Alcatel has developed solutions to support service providers transform their services to meet user broadband needs, transform their networks to expand broadband footprint, and transform their business. "

For more information on Alcatel's Broadband for All program, please visit http://www.alcatel.com/atr .

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com