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Chapter 1INTRODUCTION1.1 Statement of the problemThe growing demand for high-speed Internet access and broadband services hasmotivated the extensions of communications services in residential areas [99]. There areseveral technologies currently arriving in homes [124], such as Digital Subscriber Loop(DSL) 1 , Fibre, Wireless and Satellite Technologies. However, Community AntennaTelevision (CATV) is also one of those technologies with high penetration intocommunities (a share of cable TV households subscribers on homes passed by cable)[99]. Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland are countrieswhere CATV networks are the most widespread, [7] and [30]. The aggregate number ofcable subscribers in these countries is about 15 million, with a cable penetrationbetween 90 and 100% (the highest percentage in the world), [7]. Germany has moresubscribers with 22 million (at 85% penetration).Historically, cable penetration is weak in Greece, the UK, Portugal, France, Spain andItaly, between 7 and 42% penetration [7]. The reason why the United Kingdom is anexception to this trend is due to satellite penetration. In other parts of the world, theUSA and China have a high cable subscription with 67 million (65% penetration) [128]and 90 million (80% penetration) [135], respectively. Table C.1 (Appendix C) shows anapproximation of the number of cable subscriptions and penetration (in %) for countriesin Europe, North America and Asia.1 A complete list of abbreviations is provided in Appendix A.1-1