American families have jumped on the home wireless bandwagon and don’t seem to be turning back, revealed a new consumer survey of US 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.”

The most common use for home wireless was reported to be for simple email and Web surfing with 92 per cent, but family usage is rapidly branching out to new areas. The two next most common uses for home wireless were closely ranked with 67 per cent regularly downloading videos and music, and 66 per cent 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 per cent, smartphones at 41 per cent and wireless printers at 36 per cent.

Overall, home wireless use is reported to be regular and frequent among both parents and children. Of those adults surveyed, 62 per cent say they use wireless devices connected to the Internet seven days a week, while 71 per cent said they use them between five and seven days a week. Forty-six per cent 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 per cent reported they used them between five and seven days a week.

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

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