Fiber For Breakfast Week 3: How Connected Homes are Powering Independence as America Ages

Fiber For Breakfast Week 3: How Connected Homes are Powering Independence as America Ages 

Smart home technology isn’t about convenience anymore — for many households, it’s becoming a lifeline. From fall detection and emergency alerts to remote monitoring and telehealth, connected tools are reshaping how older adults stay independent at home. That shift was at the center of this week’s Fiber for Breakfast, where Gary was joined by Elizabeth Parks, President and CMO of Parks Associates, to walk through new data showing how older adults and caregivers are using connect technology — and the critical role broadband connectivity plays beneath it all.  

Parks Associates’ research draws on surveys of 8,000 U.S. internet households conducted quarterly for more than a decade, offering a long-term view into how technology adoption is changing inside the home. One of the clearest trends Elizabeth shared is the rapid move toward connected living. Nearly half of all U.S. households now have at least one smart home device, and the average home supports 17 connected devices, ranging from streaming TVs and security cameras to sensors and voice assistants. 

That connected foundation is becoming especially important as the caregiver market grows. Parks Associates estimates that 30 million households include someone who is currently caring for an older adult, or expects to be within the next five years, representing one quarter of all U.S. households. For these families, technology is increasingly viewed as a way to extend independence while reducing risk. Devices that monitor movement, detect falls, shut off appliances, or trigger emergency alerts are no longer niche concepts. In fact, an estimated 16 million households are already using some form of assistive care technology. 

What’s changing is the willingness to pay. Elizabeth noted that consumers across age groups, including those 75 and older, show strong interest in paying monthly fees for services that support safety, health monitoring, and peace of mind. That demand is helping turn assistive care into a multibillion-dollar market and opening new opportunities for broadband providers, not just as connectivity enablers, but as potential service partners. 

Throughout the discussion, one theme kept resurfacing: these applications only work as well as the network underneath them. “That always–on, highly reliable connection becomes very important,” Elizabeth said, particularly when technologies are tied to safety, health and real-time monitoring. A dropped signal or failed upload isn’t just inconvenient; it can undermine trust in the entire system. Parks Associates’ data consistency shows that higher-quality connections correlate with more advanced and higher-value applications in the home, reinforcing fiber’s role as the platform for next-generation services.  

The conversation also touched on the growing influence of AI, from smarter routers and predictive health monitoring to more proactive customer service tools. Many of these capabilities, Elizabeth noted, are already entering the market, and they will only increase the volume and importance of data moving through the home.   

The takeaway was clear: assistive car technology is no longer a future market. It’s here, it’s scaling, and it depends on a strong broadband foundation. For fiber providers, that positions connectivity not just as infrastructure, but as a gateway to services that help people live safer, more independent lives.  

Click here to watch the full interview. 

Click here to view the slides.