SAN MATEO, Calif., March 15 -- There will be a major increase in the bandwidth requirements of communication to homes and to small businesses based in primarily residential areas, plus fiber connections to downtown business subscribers, according to the Metro/Access Fiber Optic Network Services, Equipment and Components Forecast Service by the ElectroniCast Corporation.
    The total metro/access consumption of equipment and components is the sum of residential services demand plus business/government communication demand. According to the forecast, the revenue from providing all types of residential broadband services to North American subscribers will advance from $48.1 billion in 1999 to $95.1 billion in 2004 and $174.8 billion in 2009. This is in addition to narrow band residential communication services revenue, which will advance from $52.4 billion to $130 billion across the forecast period.