In order to avoid a slowdown, these companies and wireless services providers in North America have to invest up to $55 billion. That's almost 70 percent more than planned, Nemertes said.

Most of the investment is needed for costly running of new high-capacity lines. For example, Verizon is replacing copper lines with fiber optic for its FiOS service, which has 1.3 million online subscribers, Editor & Publisher reported.