Home Bandwidth Demands Set For Big Surge, Study Says

Bandwidth requirements for homes with wireless networks will increase almost 20-fold by 2009, according to a study released Thursday by JupiterResearch.

The study found that a typical home with a broadband connection and a wireless network currently need less than 3 Mbps of bandwidth. However, that is likely to grow to 57 Mbps in 2009 with particularly tech-savvy homes needing as much as 84 Mbps, according to the study. In addition, the study claims that the number of homes with wireless networks will increase from 7.5 million this year to 34.3 million in 2009.

The dramatic increase is being driven by an expected upsurge in streaming digital media brought into the home, according to the study. This will lead to centralized storage, manage and synchronization of that media, according to the study.

"Consumers are beginning to shift their paradigms for Internet access, home networking and digital content management," Julie Ask, a research director at JupiterResearch, said in a statement. "The number of consumer electronics devices using a wireless network in the home could explode over the next five years."