Fiber to the home may remain a dream for most Americans, but some new greenfield real estate developments, also known as “Master Planned Communities (MPC)” are experimenting with super-speed broadband and new broadband applications.

In-Stat/MDR says that despite their small size in comparison to the total US residential broadband market, the MPC market is at the forefront for new technology adoption, presenting unique opportunities to showcase advanced solutions, introduce new services, and achieve revenue per user that is not possible in the general residential market. I for one have travelled to many of these communities, and seen these models at work. Eagle Broadband, for instance is one company that is find a lot of success with this model.

This is a really big market for a very small company, such as Eagle Broadband. It has competitors such as En-Touch and Central Texas Technologies. In-Stat/MDR estimates that the connected community market is expected to grow from 236.6 thousand homes in 2003 to over 1 million homes in 2008. The big growth is new boom areas such as Texas, Arizona, California, and North Carolina

bq. “Homebuyers are increasingly looking for technology as a factor in their purchase decision, and developers are increasingly using technology as an amenity to attract these homebuyers, ” says Amy Cravens, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR. “As consumers have become more attuned to, and demanding of, in-home connectivity, residential developers and builders have begun to focus on introducing the necessary infrastructure to enable broadband services in their MPC. In many Greenfield developments not only is broadband connectivity available, but it is a cornerstone of the community.”