When reading our Industry Crystal Ball in the January issue, I was struck by a quote from Bryan Rader where he said, "The big challenge in providing [high speed] Internet is meeting the property owner's demand for offering the product even though customer demand is not yet there."

Bryan is, of course, correct. Customer demand is not there for residential broadband service today and this is proven by the fact that take rates still languish around 10-12% on most properties. Compare that to the take rate of cable TV service on a property; where you are conservatively almost always over 80%, and you can easily see why a lot of providers are struggling with the issue of providing broadband.

So why is broadband service only attracting 10% of a properties residents? I believe it is a myriad of reasons from generational issues with computers and technology to a basic lack of familiarity with the product-most Internet surfers begin on and stay on AOL and never realize the world of services broadband opens them up to.

So when you consider the variables above (and others), I think they all boil down to a simple value proposition. That being today, the most popular use for the Internet service is email and residents are choosing not to spend an extra $20-30 each month to send or receive it more quickly.

Until the day where we see an increase in product familiarity, more attractive bundles or a driver from the application side to enhance the value proposition of broadband, I would except nothing greater than a moderately paced increase in residential take rates.