NETWORKS

American families have jumped on the home wireless bandwagon and don't seem to be turning back, revealed a new consumer survey of U.S. families conducted this summer by Opinion Research for Cisco's Home Networking business unit. The Home Wireless Usage survey found that of the families surveyed with home wireless networks, the majority were using their home wireless regularly for a range of uses and with multiple devices connected simultaneously. The survey also revealed that speed and ease of use are now the top purchase considerations for home wireless solutions.

"The Home Wireless Usage survey validates that consumers are now embracing a wireless connected lifestyle for the entire family," said Brett Wingo, general manager, Cisco Home Networking business unit. "Cisco's Home Networking products have been designed to meet the explosive streaming video and data content needs, while delivering great wireless user experiences to the entire family everywhere in the home."

Wide Range of Wireless Devices and Uses The most common use for home wireless was reported to be for simple email and Web surfing with 92 percent, but family usage is rapidly branching out to new areas. The two next most common uses for home wireless were closely ranked with 67 percent regularly downloading videos and music, and 66 percent using their network to access the Web from a smartphone or tablet. The most popular devices families connect to their home wireless networks were game consoles at 66 percent, smartphones at 41 percent and wireless printers at 36 percent.

Entire Family Gets Regular Use of Home Network Overall, home wireless use is reported to be regular and frequent among both parents and children. Of those adults surveyed, 62 percent say they use wireless devices connected to the Internet seven days a week, while 71 percent said they use them between five and seven days a week. Forty-six percent of the children in the families surveyed were estimated by their parents to use wireless devices at home every day of the week, while 54 percent reported they used them between five and seven days a week.

Speed and Ease of Use are Top Considerations Other notable results of the Home Wireless Usage survey provide insight into the factors consumers consider in selecting their current wireless router. Currently, 22 percent bought their wireless router based on speed, followed by 17 percent for low price, and 15 percent for ease of use. When considering a new wireless router purchase, speed remained the top factor and increased in importance to 37 percent, while ease of use moved up to the second priority with 17 percent.

Home wireless routers that use the latest Wireless-N technology are the best equipped to support the full range of wireless home entertainment experiences. Cisco's new Linksys E-Series routers use Wireless-N to not only provide the high performance required for today's connected home, but also to help address the functional demands and requirements of new and emerging media technologies such as Internet-enabled TVs, game consoles, tablets and smartphones Linksys products also include Cisco Connect software, making it easier for consumers to set up and manage a home network.

The Home Wireless Usage survey was conducted in June 2011 by Opinion Research for Cisco's Home Networking business unit. The online survey included 250 adults from across the U.S. with home wireless and at least one child living in their homes.