Broadband Slowing Down?

A recent article in WSJ (link) highlights the deceleration in broadband growth:

The broadband deceleration comes after years of being on fire with growth. More than 50% of households in the U.S., or about 56 million homes, currently subscribe to a high-speed Internet service. An additional 21 million or so households have dial-up connections.

With more than half the population yet to be turned into broadband subscribers, its a bit surprising that we're already sounding the alarm bells about broadband adoption levelling off!

I remember reading somewhere: Cellular networks have a number of devices but not enough applications. Broadband services have enough applications but not as many devices.

Having more dedicated devices (infotaintment devices, broadband based gaming devices that don't need a TV screen), and services (seamless backup) that depend on a broadband is likely to increase broadband adoption. For instance, I know people routinely read news and other stuff on their phones, in places at home where they can't or don't want to take a laptop. I also worry we may end up with health issues - such as vision problems due to constantly looking at small screens. (See a recent report on the economic impact of vision problems.)

Wouldn't it be nice to have slightly bigger devices (without keyboards, cheaper than laptops, maybe dedicated devices to serve various niches) that are more "portable," robust and have better power management than laptops?

Maybe, instead of going after each other's customers and focusing on price competition, the big telecoms need to take a page out of cellular operator land and subsidize the initial cost of a device and provide value added services.