Any consumer who frequently uses over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or YouTube can attest to the fact that at certain points in time, buffering can  put a serious damper on your viewing experience.

While the rise of the Internet has certainly opened up a world of possibilities, it has also perhaps brought along with it the rise of the impatience of the average OTT user. Whereas 10 years ago, no one would imagine it would be possible to stream a movie over the Internet in HD, today if that movie buffers for even five seconds, a watcher could become extremely frustrated.

In order to alleviate that frustration, service providers are increasingly realizing the importance of providing their customers with the fastest high-speed connections available. If you’re not offering the most effective connections available, diehard OTT users are likely to shop around to find a provider that is.

Recently, the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council issued a report extolling the necessity of providers to install fiber optic cables in order to offer their customers the fastest connections possible. According to a survey commissioned by the council, 40 percent of respondents indicated they are using some form of OTT services. For respondents 35-years-old or younger, that number shot up to 70 percent, a figure that suggests the popularity of OTT services will continue to rise into the future.

If consumers today are already demanding flawless, high-definition viewing, one could only imagine what the OTT users of the future will grow to expect. With this in mind, if they haven’t begun already, forward-thinking service providers should start constructing fiber optic infrastructure in order to alleviate customer frustration and future-proof their businesses in order to meet the growing demand for OTT services.