Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Fiber For Breakfast Week 3: How Connected Homes are Powering Independence as America Ages

From fall detection and emergency alerts to remote monitoring and telehealth, connected tools are reshaping how older adults stay independent at home. That shift was at the center of this week’s Fiber for Breakfast, where Gary was joined by Elizabeth Parks, President and CMO of Parks Associates, to walk through new data showing how older adults and caregivers are using connect technology — and the critical role broadband connectivity plays beneath it all.  

Parks Associates’ research draws on surveys of 8,000 U.S. internet households conducted quarterly for more than a decade, offering a long-term view into how technology adoption is changing inside the home. One of the clearest trends Elizabeth shared is the rapid move toward connected living. Nearly half of all U.S. households now have at least one smart home device, and the average home supports 17 connected devices, ranging from streaming TVs and security cameras to sensors and voice assistants. 

That connected foundation is becoming especially important as the caregiver market grows. Parks Associates estimates that 30 million households include someone who is currently caring for an older adult, or expects to be within the next five years, representing one quarter of all U.S. households. 

Elizabeth noted that consumers across age groups, including those 75 and older, show strong interest in paying monthly fees for services that support safety, health monitoring, and peace of mind. That demand is helping turn assistive care into a multibillion-dollar market and opening new opportunities for broadband providers, not just as connectivity enablers, but as potential service partners. 

Throughout the discussion, one theme kept resurfacing: these applications only work as well as the network underneath them. “That always–on, highly reliable connection becomes very important,” Elizabeth said, particularly when technologies are tied to safety, health and real-time monitoring. A dropped signal or failed upload isn’t just inconvenient; it can undermine trust in the entire system. Parks Associates’ data consistency shows that higher-quality connections correlate with more advanced and higher-value applications in the home, reinforcing fiber’s role as the platform for next-generation services.  

The conversation also touched on the growing influence of AI, from smarter routers and predictive health monitoring to more proactive customer service tools. Many of these capabilities, Elizabeth noted, are already entering the market, and they will only increase the volume and importance of data moving through the home.   

From the Fiber Broadband Association's article, "Fiber For Breakfast Week 3: How Connected Homes are Powering Independence as America Ages" 

Previously In The News

Only 4% Of People Share Passwords For Services Like Netflix Outside Their Families

Last year, a report from Parks Associates estimated the industry would lose $500 million to password sharing in 2015. This data suggests that might be a bit of an overstatement given the likelihood of...

Sharing Netflix Or HBO Go Passwords Is Technically Federal Crime Under 9th Circuit Ruling

“The majority is wrong to conclude that a person necessarily accesses a computer account ‘without authorization’ if he does so without the permission of the system owner,” Reinhardt wrote in his disse...

Netflix's Competitors Are Quickly Closing The Gap in A Crucial Area

Netflix customers are loyal. In research published this April, analysts from Parks Associates found that Netflix subscribers were much less likely to cancel than those of Hulu or Amazon Prime Video. O...

Merger For New Media Era Or A Bad Remake?

Pay-TV operators are seeing a "slow erosion of the core business," analyst Brett Sappington at Parks Associates said. "After years of attempts to be more than just a 'dumb pipe,' pay-TV operators h...

Phone:
972-490-1113
Mailing Address:
2301 West Plano Parkway, Suite 210, Plano, TX 75075
Expertise
Smart Home: Management and Safety Consumer Electronics Connected Health and Wellness Connectivity and Mobility Small-to-medium Business (SMB) MDU
Services
Research Memberships Visibility Memberships Streaming Video Tracker Smart Home and Security Tracker Broadband Market Tracker Channel Analytics
Events
CONNECTIONS™ CONNECTIONS™ Summit/CES Smart Energy Summit Connected Health Summit Future Of Video Smart Spaces
Resources
Press Releases Analyst Blog Parks in the News
About Us
Overview Team Contact Us
Store
View Your Cart

Follow:

© 2023-2026 Parks Associates. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy

Design & Developed By Agency Partner Interactive