Broadband adoption is at 64% of households

Only four percent of American households don’t have access to any high-speed broadband at home

In October 2009, according to the Census Current Population Survey data, 63.5 percent (75.8 million) of U.S. households used a high-speed Internet – “broadband” – service.

According to a report on the US Hispanic internet market from comScore, the Hispanic online demographic is expanding more than 50% faster than the overall US online population.

A recent survey found that about 65% of U.S. households currently subscribe to high-speed Internet service.

One recent study estimated that a seven percentage point increase in broadband adoption “could result in [direct annual income growth of] $92 billion through an additional 2.4 million jobs created or saved annually, $662 million saved per year in reduced healthcare costs…and $134 billion per year in total direct economic impact of accelerating broadband across the United States.”

According to one study, less than a third of people with disabilities – 24 percent – had adopted broadband by 2008.

According to a recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life project (“Pew”), 63 percent of homes had adopted broadband by April 2009, up from 55 percent in April 2008 and 42 percent in March 2006.

Indeed, a 2003 study found that 21 percent of people with disabilities remained offline because they thought it was confusing and hard to use.

In 2008, slightly more than half of people with disabilities – 51 percent – reported having a computer at home.

By 2006, the number of people with disabilities who had a home computer had risen substantially, to nearly 40 percent, but this number was still lower than that for people without disabilities.

A recent series of Pew studies found that only three percent of all non-Internet users reported being “physically unable” to use these types of technologies, 54 whereas 22 percent of non-users responded that they were not interested in getting online.

A 2000 study found that only 24 percent of people with disabilities had a computer at home, compared to nearly 52 percent for people without a disability.

A recent study by Pew concluded that, among those U.S. adults that are offline, only 16 percent cited lack of available broadband as their primary reason for not having broadband at home.

According to the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association’s 2008 Annual Broadband/Internet Availability Survey Report, 91 percent of customers in its 2008 Survey area had access to broadband, 49 up from 70 percent in 2007.

The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) recently reported that the total number of broadband connections in the United States was 132 million by the middle of 2008, compared to only 6.7 million at the end of 2000.

According to ComScore, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing handle 17 percent and 11 percent of United States Web searches, and in Europe they both handle less than 2 percent.

According to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, in 2003, about 15% of Americans had access to broadband in their homes and that number has grown to nearly two-thirds of the country.

According to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, in 2003, about 15% of Americans had access to broadband in their homes and that number has grown to nearly two-thirds of the country.

According to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, some form of wireline-based broadband is available to roughly 95 percent of Americans.

According to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, cable broadband alone is available to 92 percent of the country.

According to the recent Pew Home Broadband Adoption Report, 40% of Hispanic households have broadband connections at home, compared with 63% of all American households.

Broadband Internet access is currently available in 90 percent of the United States and installed in roughly 73 million homes

According to the FCC’s broadband website, about 93 million Americans are not connected to broadband today.

Approximately 20% of U.S. households do not have any internet access and 14% access the internet with dial up telephone service.

Current wireline broadband penetration is at 66% of all U.S. households, with 29% by telecommunications companies and 37% by cable companies.

Just 37 percent of Spanish-dominant Latinos actually subscribe to broadband at home.

In 2000, there were approximately 7 million broadband lines. Now there are more than 132 million.

As the year started, about 700 commercial airliners were outfitted with Wi-Fi by Gogo.

According to a new market research report conducted by Pike & Fischer, cable is expected to add 2.1 million new broadband subs, and phone companies 1.7 million.

According to a new poll conducted by GFK, in Italy, only 39% of respondents said they have access to the Internet for private purposes. That puts Italy in the same league as Romania (36%) and Bulgaria (37%), two formerly communist countries that rank as the EU’s poorest member states.

Asked whether all Internet content should be free, 42% of European respondents to a GFK poll said “yes,” compared with 21% in the U.S. Also, more Americans (57%) than Europeans (40%) said Internet content should be free with the understanding that advertisements and other marketing tools might be included.

According to a new poll conducted by GFK, there are two countries in Europe that stand out for having particularly high Web access: the Netherlands (91%) and Sweden (86%).

According to a new poll conducted by GFK, across Western Europe, 61% of people say they have access to the Web, either from home, work, an Internet cafe or a mobile device. In the U.S., 75% of respondents said they had similar access. Europe as a whole, including five Central and Eastern European states, lags even farther behind, with only 59% of those surveyed saying they have personal access to the Internet.

According to Forrester, nearly 16 million new broadband subscribers will emerge in the next five years. More than half of those will materialize in the next 24 months.

According to Brian David, director-adoption and usage for the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, estimates say that about 65% of homes in the U.S. subscribe to broadband services currently, while 5% do not have access to broadband services and 30% of homes have access but do not subscribe.

40% of Americans say they get most of their news from the Internet.

Non-adopters have increasingly limited resources to gather current events information.

As application use evolves and demand for high-speed services increases, only a small percentage of Americans may have access to a provider able to serve high-speed product markets.

Much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s funding is largely targeted at rural, relatively high-cost markets. Internet regulations of this sort may reduce the effectiveness of such funds by raising the cost of network deployment and management.

Under the plain terms of H.R. 3458, not only would an Internet access service provider be prohibited from “impos[ing] a charge on any Internet content, service, or application provider…

THE ECONOMIST recently noted the importance of broadband for both developing and developed economies, reporting that a 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration would increase GDP by about 1.2% in developed economies.

According to Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon LLC, economic models indicate broadband access would “reach universality” without government intervention in the market by about 2016.

Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon LLC, said that the differences in diffusion of Internet access across different income groups was “closer to a digital lag than a digital divide,” with lower income people adopting these technologies at the same rate as higher income people, but with a four-year lag.

According to researcher Paul Budde, Latin and South America’s broadband compound annual growth rate [was] 48 percent between 2003 and 2008, one of the highest in the world.

According to Gary Evenson, administrator of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) telecommunications division, the [Wisconsin] PSC estimates there is broadband access in more than 80% of the state, and finding that last 15% to 20% that doesn’t have it “is a challenge.”

People with disabilities (15 percent of U.S. adults) can benefit greatly from increased adoption and use of broadband connectivity and services.

30 to 40 million households have access to broadband connectivity have not taken advantage of it.

According to the latest available Federal Communications Commission statistics, more than 90% of the country’s households have access to a high-speed, multi-megabit, wireline connection, and residential broadband adoption in the United States had grown from 3.2 million households in 2000 to as many as 70 million.

AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega cited research showing that demand for wireless broadband has grown 5,000 times in the last three years.

According to a survey by RVA Marketing Associates, the average overall take rate for FTTH is 32.5%, but it’s higher on average (53%) among non-RBOC providers, some of whom have take rates in the 70% to 80% range. The average RBOC take rate is 28%.

According to a survey by RVA Marketing Associates, FTTH is being adopted at a faster pace than either copper or coaxial cable were when they were first introduced.

According to a survey by RVA Marketing Associates, consumers perceive FTTH to be faster (67%) Internet access with more consistency (63%) and better customer service (55%); better high-definition TV service (69%) and better video on demand (56%).

30 to 40 million households have access to broadband connectivity have not taken advantage of it.

Federal Communications Commission statistics, maintain that more than 90% of the country’s households had access to a high-speed, multi-megabit, wireline connection, as well as data compiled by industry analysts, and residential broadband adoption in the United States had grown from 3.2 million households in 2000 to as many as 70 million.

18% of those who took the test recorded download speeds that were slower than 768 kbps, which does not even qualify as basic broadband according to the Federal Communications Commission. 

The 2009 speedmatters.org survey finds that the average download speed for the nation was 5.1 megabits per second (mbps) and the average upload speed was 1.1 mbps.  These speeds are just slightly faster than the 2008 speedmatters.org results. 

The US is 15th behind other industrialized countries in high speed internet adoption, and 28th in Internet speeds.

While the Internet was started in the U.S., today just 15% of the world’s estimated 1.7 billion Internet users reside in North America, according to internetworldstats.com.

In India, only 10 million people have access to broadband, and most of those individuals are located in major cities, while 400 million people have mobile phones.

According to Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet Project, growth in broadband adoption at home has increased from just 3% of Americans in 2000 to 63% as of April 2009.

According to Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett, the cable industry is outgrowing the wireless industry.

According to a press release from Tropos Networks, a municipal Wi-Fi networking gear maker, the availability of Wi-Fi on mobile phones is driving use of WiFi networks across the country.

According to Charles Davidson, the director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School, only about 30 percent of the 37 million people over 65 in the U.S. are broadband adopters.

According to Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice-president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, the number of high-speed wireless subscribers soared from 35.3 million to 59.7 million and mobile wireless’ share of total broadband connections increased from 35 percent to 45 percent during the period from June 2007 to June 2008.

By 2013, the number of Internet-connected PCs in India will grow to 73.5 million, up from 32.9 million this year, IDC estimates.

According to a new Forrester Research report, while young people march toward almost universal adoption, the most rapid growth has occurred among consumers 35 and older.

According to Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet Project, growth in broadband adoption at home has increased from just 3% of Americans in 2000 to 63% as of April 2009.

According to Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett, the cable industry is outgrowing the wireless industry.

According to a press release from Tropos Networks, a municipal Wi-Fi networking gear maker, the availability of Wi-Fi on mobile phones is driving use of WiFi networks across the country.

According to Charles Davidson, the director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School, only about 30 percent of the 37 million people over 65 in the U.S. are broadband adopters.

According to Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice-president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, the number of high-speed wireless subscribers soared from 35.3 million to 59.7 million and mobile wireless’ share of total broadband connections increased from 35 percent to 45 percent during the period from June 2007 to June 2008.

According to Charles Davidson, director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at the New York Law School, only about 30% of U.S. people over age 65 have adopted broadband, and in many cases, the elderly don’t own home computers.

More than 90 percent of South Korean households subscribe to broadband service, and broadband is provided free of charge to all public schools.

According to a new Phoenix Center study, a $10,000 increase in gross domestic product per capita on average increases the connection rate per capita by 1.97 percentage points.

According to a new Phoenix Center study, a 10 percentage point rise in the percentage of a population living in an urban area, or a 10 percentage point decline in the share of persons over 65 years of age, both increase the subscription rate by about 3.0 percentage points, on average.

According to a new Phoenix Center study, broadband purchases are positively related to income and education, and inversely related to service price and the age of the user.

According to a study by the Phoenix Center, more than half of all broadband connections in Portugal use mobile technologies, and 10 percent of broadband connected persons in the country use only a mobile access method.

According to the Phoenix Center’s new study, 91 percent of the differences in fixed broadband adoption rates in the 30 OECD member countries can be explained by reference solely to differences in income, education, population age, and other demographic factors that bear little relationship to broadband or telecommunications policy.

New York, the largest local market, reached 96 percent broadband penetration in Q1 2009, making it the most wired local market among the largest five.

The nation’s fastest growing broadband adoption markets were all smaller, ranking at or below #50 in terms of size.

The nation’s largest markets are closer to reaching broadband penetration saturation and experienced low single-digit growth.

The 75% broadband penetration rate in rural markets remains well below the national average of 89 percent.

According to a 2007 analysis by U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 63 percent of all rural households had at least one member access the Internet, compared with 73 percent of urban households.

Broadband has experienced the most significant gains in rural areas during the past two years, even though broadband penetration reamins much higher in the metropolitan and micropolitan areas.

Rural markets (defined as having a population less than 10,000) in the U.S. experienced a 16-percentage point increase in broadband penetration from Q2 2007 to Q2 2009.

Net broadband additions in 1Q 2009 were about 600,000 more than in 4Q 2008, and the most since the first quarter of 2008.

Overall, broadband additions in 1Q 2009 amounted to 73% of those in 1Q 2008 – with cable having 70% as many additions as a year ago, and Telcos 77%.

The top cable companies added over 835,000 subscribers, representing 52% of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top telephone companies.

The twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US – representing about 94% of the market – acquired over 1.6 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2009.

The cable industry added over seven million high speed Internet and telephone subscribers in 2008.

86% of households nationwide subscribe to some form of multi-channel video service – an all-time high.

62% of all households currently receive a bundle of services (TV, Internet, and/or telephone) from one company – up from 33% four years ago.

66% of those who get bundled services from cable are very satisfied with their cable TV company – compared to 55% who get only cable TV.

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that 38% of households with annual incomes under $30,000 do not have a computer at home, and only half of households in this income group subscribe to any type of Internet service at home.

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that 89% of all households with annual incomes over $75,000 subscribe to a broadband service – compared to 70% of households with incomes of $30,000-$75,000, and 37% of households with incomes under $30,000.

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that just 8% rate the cost of their broadband service as poor (1-3) – while 46% rate the cost favorably (8-10).

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that non-broadband subscribers are more likely than average to live in rural areas; be over age 55; and have a lower annual household income.

On average, American consumers spend $40.50 per month on broadband service.

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that 66% of broadband subscribers rate the quality of the speed of their Internet connection favorably (8-10) – while just 5% rate the connection speed as poor (1-3).

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that 29% of broadband subscribers are very interested (8-10) in receiving faster Internet access at home – while 37% are not interested (1-3).

LRG’s seventh annual survey on broadband in the US, conducted in March-April of 2009, found that 67% of broadband subscribers are very satisfied (rating satisfaction 8-10 on a 10-point scale) with their service – while just 4% are not satisfied (1-3 on that same scale).

34% of African Americans have a laptop and 28% have used it to go online wirelessly. 

Currently, 63 percent of adults have broadband at home, compared to just 7 percent who use dial-up connections, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

61% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 have laptops and 55% have used it to connect to the internet on a wireless network. 

47% of whites have a laptop and 38% have used it to connect wirelessly to the internet.

64% of laptop users log on wirelessly at least once a day and 48% do so several times a day.  6

68% of college graduates have laptops and 58% have used a laptop to connect using a wireless network. 

47% of Americans have laptops, and wireless is by and large the norm for internet access. 

17% say mobile access is very important to them so they can share or post online content while away from home or work. 

Among the 78% of adults who have a desktop computer or a laptop computer, 6% don’t use the internet. 

50% of people say it is very important to have mobile access in order to stay in touch with other people.

46% say that mobile access is very important for getting online information on the go.

14% of adults say they have a personal digital assistant, and 7% of adults have used a PDA to go online. 

2% of adults say they own an e-book reader - a Kindle or a Sony reader – just 1% of all adults have used it to access the internet. 

45% of all Americans have iPods or MP3 players, but only 5% of adults have used such a device to go online.

41% of adults have game consoles and 9% of adults have used it to go online. 

By 59% to 45% margin, white Americans are more likely to go online using a computer on a typical day than African Americans – when mobile devices are included in the mix, the gap is cut in half.

61% of whites go online on the average day, when mobile access is included while 54% of African Americans do. 

32% of all Americans have gotten online with a mobile device which includes cell phones or other handheld devices to check email, access the internet for information, or send instant messages.

The U. S. is making tremendous progress in getting homes connected to broadband, moving from 55 percent of homes last year in a Pew survey to 63% this year. 

56% of all Americans have accessed the internet by wireless means with a variety of devices ranging from laptops, cell phones, game consoles and more. 

23 percent of European homes and businesses using fixed-line broadband, compared with 20 percent in the United States.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski noted that 40 percent of U.S. residents do not have broadband subscriptions, but that number rises to 60 percent for families that make less than US$50,000 a year.

43 percent of respondents in a recent Strategy Analytics survey said they would eliminate their mobile data service, if economic circumstances dictated.

The vast majority of those polled in a recent survey by Strategy Analytics said they had kept their broadband spending virtually unchanged in the past year (77 percent), and did not foresee any changes in the upcoming twelve months (83 percent).

According to a new report from Infonetics Research, revenue for Ethernet services grew 36% in 2008 to $16.8 billion and is on track to nearly double to $33 billion by 2013.

Denmark has 37 percent of homes and businesses fitted with high-speed Internet, the highest percentage in the world, followed by the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg.

40 percent of households in the United States still don’t have broadband, and the percentages are even lower when you look at just rural areas.

23 percent of European homes and business using fixed-line broadband, compared with 20 percent in the United States.

Some 43% of broadband users at home connect through cable, 31% by DSL and 23% by fixed wireless, satellite or fiber. Old fashioned dial-up access still accounts for 7% of Web users.

A new Pew study has found that with even higher speed, broadband would provide consumers even greater benefits – at a minimum of an additional $6 billion per year.

It is estimated that 8 percent to 10 percent of the nation’s hinterland households do not have access to high-speed Internet service.

According to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project 85 percent of respondents in a recent study told researchers that they have a smart phone or cell phone, but only 32 percent said they’ve used it to go online.

The percentage of African-Americans using mobile phones or another type of connected gadget to share e-mail, exchange instant messages and access the Internet for information on an average day has more than doubled since late 2007, jumping to 29 percent, from 12 percent.

A report found that nearly half of all African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics (the study did not include a Spanish-language option) were using mobile phones or other hand-held devices to surf the Web and send e-mail messages.

Broadband penetration differs by location: central city (12.2 percent) vs. urban (11.8 percent) vs. rural (7.3 percent) vs. U.S. (10.7 percent).

Absent any social premia, the socially optimal level of broadband connectivity is at the intersection of the end user willingness to pay and the incremental cost of production.

The Phoenix Center recently proposed a new measurement of broadband adoption of a country.

91% of the differences in fixed broadband adoption rates in the 30 OECD member countries can be explained by reference solely to differences in income, education, population, age, and other demographic factors that bear little relationship to broadband or telecommunications policy.

70 percent of urban households and 67 percent of rural households had adopted broadband as of 2008.

In 2008, 88 percent of high income households (income greater than $100,000 per year) were connected to broadband, while only 41 percent of low-income households (income less than $25,000 per year) had adopted it.

83 percent of college graduate households have broadband at home, with only 38 percent of households without a high school diploma having it.

By 2008, 57 percent of households had broadband, which is up from less than ten percent in 2001.

82 percent of Asian households are connected to broadband, with only 57 percent of African American households; this represents a racial broadband access gap.

84 percent of households ages 18 to 24 are connected to broadband at home, with only 43 percent of senior households connected.

Broadband is an experience good – those that have broadband value it 40 percent more than those with dial-up connections.

About 92% of U.S. residents have access to broadband.

Europe, like North America, will see its percentage of the world-wide Internet population decrease to 22% from 26% over the next four years, given its already high penetration of Internet users in Western Europe

Latin America’s share of the online populace will remain virtually unchanged at 11% — more than half of its Internet users are based in Mexico or Brazil. Africa and the Middle East represent the smallest Internet audience, and will remain so in 2013 at 10%. Iran, Egypt and Nigeria, however, are among the world’s fastest-growing Internet populations, and Forrester predicts that the region’s growth rate will exceed 13% over the next five years.

Faster adoption in Asia will lead to a widening gap in the global distribution of users.

Asia’s share of the world’s online population will swell to 43% in four years, while North America will represent just 13% of Internet users, according to a new report by Forrester Research.

The total world-wide population of active Internet users (defined as those who have been online at least once in the past month) will be about 2.17 billion in 2014, up from 1.46 billion last year.

Broadband Internet access has increased to more than 66 million homes, up from 10.4 million in 2001.

Today, there are 270 million mobile wireless customers—up from 100 million eight years ago.

According to CFA/CU, only 15 percent of rural households with annual incomes less than $25,000 have broadband access whereas 45 percent of rural households with annual incomes greater than $25,000 have broadband access in the home.

In Southeastern Wisconsin, an advisory committee was established to implement a regional broadband plan covering seven counties, of which about 64% of the land area is rural.

2007 data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey reveal that nationwide, American Indian/Alaskan Native households have a broadband subscription rate of only 30 percent, by far the lowest subscription rate among any ethnic group identified.

According to NTIA, while 54 percent of urban households had broadband in the home in 2007, only 39 percent of rural households did.

The 2008 Pew Broadband Adoption Study found that a much larger proportion of urban and suburban residents have broadband at home (57-60 percent) than rural residents do (38 percent).

In the first quarter of 2009, Time Warner Cable gained 36,000 basic-video subscribers, which the company attributed mainly to the publicity around the broadcast digital TV transition.

A Connected Nation survey revealed the people cite five reasons for not hooking up to broadband: don’t need it, 44 percent; don’t have a computer, 32 percent; it’s too expensive, 23 percent; it’s not available (unserved), 14 percent; they get it somewhere else (a school or library), 8 percent.

Connected Nation CEO Brian Mefford estimates that about 19 percent of West Virginia’s residents are unserved by broadband.

Verizon has about 8.9 million broadband customers nationally—6.1 million high speed Internet customers and nearly 2.8 million FiOS (fiber optic) customers, said Sandy Arnette of Verizon Media Relations.

The FCC Survey ‘Bringing Broadband to Rural America,” cites a 2008 Pew Broadband Adoption Study which found that between 57 to 60 percent of urban/suburban consumers have broadband, compared to 38 percent of rural residents.

Computing has displaced radio as the number 2 media activity. Radio is now number 3 and print is number 4. (page 32)

The degree of concurrent screen media exposure (i.e. media multitasking, where consumers are using multiple screen media platforms) is equivalent for all age groups under the age of 55. (page 25)

Among those 18-24, TV accounts for more than 98% of screen time, while watching video on the Internet accounts for only 0.5%. (page 27)

Consumer screen media time was highest among consumers age 45-54, who had on average 9 hours and 34 minutes of screen time.

Consumers age 45 and under averaged 49 minutes of web time and 37 minutes of email time daily. (page 22)

Two thirds of all U.S. households now subscribed to high-speed Internet services, compares with only 20 percent of households that had broadband services just five years ago (2004).

$250 million of the $7.2 billion allocated for broadband stimulus money is set aside specifically for broadband adoption.

According to the most recent data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, only 55 percent of adult Americans have broadband Internet access service in their homes—meaning that roughly 40 percent of American households that could get broadband service decline to do so.

Roughly 10 million households lack any broadband options [Internet Innovation Alliance Press Release].

The U.S. is still in 15th place in broadband penetration and first in total broadband subscribers [December 2008 OECD Statistics].

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked the U.S. 15th among its 30 member nations in broadband adoption per capita. 

The number of U.S. subscribers with broadband access on their smartphones and other devices has grown from 3 million in 2006 to 73 million in 2008 [Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA].

The average cost of broadband in the USA is about $45 a month, but fees in rural areas can run much higher.

According to Telegeography, North America’s share [of broadband subscribers] will decline to 7 percent, but they will generate 23 percent of total revenues.

According to Telegeography, the Asia Pacific region will account for 50 percent of the total subscribers [broadband] in 2013, up from 28 percent at present.

According to Telegeography, there will be 2 billion wireless [broadband] subscribers by 2013, up 60 percent from today.

According to Telegeography, by the end of 2013 there will be no fewer than 2.5 billion net new [broadband] subscribers or revenue-generating units.

According to Telegeography, by the end of 2013 there will be 700 million broadband subscribers.

According to Telegeography, there will be 2.5 billion new [broadband] subscribers across the planet between now and 2013.

Leichtman Research Group found that 8% of adults who watch video online now watch TV less often.

Some 900,000 U.S. homes didn’t pay for TV and relied solely on Web TV last year, according to estimates from consulting firm Parks Associates.

A Nielsen report last month found that more than 60% of Twitter users don’t return the next month.

With a penetration rate of 60%, broadband’s growth has slowed to 8% this year from double digits last year, with telcos owning a 44% share to cable’s 63%.

Verizon has achieved a 27% penetration rate in the 16 states where Fios internet service is available (or 2.8 million Fios subscribers).

30 percent of US consumers view their broadband connection as the service they are ‘least likely to cut if forced to trim their spending during the current economic downturn.’ [Household Telecom Spending and the Economic Crisis: A Consumer Survey, conducted by Pike & Fischer]

Consumer surveys conducted by both Ovum Research and Pike and Fischer point to the fact that while people will give up other non-essential items like a gym membership, they are typically unwilling to forego their broadband subscription.

Free in-room Internet access ranked as the most desired guest-room amenity in a national survey of 800 affluent travelers conducted in August by Ypartnership, a travel marketing firm in Orlando, Fla.

A January survey by the research firm Synovate of 6,300 people across 10 countries found that 47 percent of respondents said a hotel must cater to their technology needs before they book it, with wireless access a top priority.

There will be 722 million mobile business connections worldwide by 2014, the Future Mobile Enterprise report predicts—an overall increase of almost 60 per cent on 2008’s level of connectivity.

AT&T WiFi connections totaled 10.5 million in the first quarter 2009.

96 percent of California’s households have access to a high-speed Internet connection, but 45 percent of California residents – a number greater than the populations of all but five states – still don’t have broadband connections in their homes because of geography, disabilities, a lack of English language skills or poverty.

A third of 600 participants in a survey conducted by Pike & Fisher ranked Internet access as the most important discretionary item in their budgets — and the service they’re least likely to cut.

Only about 10 percent of 600 participants in a survey conducted by Pike & Fisher said they were willing to pay more than what they already spend for Internet service.

There was a 5.4 percentage change in total visits to Web sites by Hispanic users in February [2009] compared with the previous year; while there was only a 1.8 percentage change for the total American Internet audience over the same period.

Hispanic adults are 21 percent more likely to download media content online than American adults in general, and use advanced features on cellphones at higher rates.

According to the research firm comScore, the Hispanic online population is now 11 percent of the total American market and in the last year has significantly outpaced the rest of the market.

A recent Nielsen Co. survey found that online video viewership jumped 71 percent in February 2009 from February 2008, and the fastest-growing video sites are those that make traditional cable TV obsolete.

There may be 1.6 billion people in the world with Internet access, but fewer than half of them have incomes high enough to interest major advertisers.

Standalone DSL comprised nearly 30% of AT&T’s 491,000 total net broadband subscriber additions in Q1 09.

AT&T reported a more than 50% sequential increase in first-quarter wireline broadband subscriber net additions, including 359,000 wireline broadband subscribers and 105,000 net new DSL subscribers outside of U-Verse.

Setting up the physical infrastructure for broadband service isn’t cheap — the usual estimate is $750 per person in a rural area.

Cable modem remains popular in the USA, with almost 40 million connections.

The difference between the subscriber bases in China and the USA was 4.29 million in Q4 2008 compared with 3.95 million in Q3 2008, showing that the subscriber base in China is growing faster than in the US.

The USA has the second largest number of DSL subscribers, totaling 32.2 million. This represents 10.8 per cent of the top ten total and 40.7 per cent of the country total.

The USA has the largest cable modem market with 39.85 million subscribers, followed by Canada with just over 5 million subscribers.

There are 79.07 million broadband subscribers in the USA, up 2.73 per cent on the previous quarter from almost 77 million subscribers.

The USA has 32.2 million DSL subscribers, which represents 12 per cent of the global total and is the second largest DSL market after China. Total North American DSL subscribers were 36.5 million, or 13.7% of the global total.

In terms of net additions, China was number one, with 2.43 million new subscribers, closely followed by the USA with 2.1 million new subscribers.

Latin America and Eastern Europe had the highest broadband penetration growth rates at 7.55 per cent and 6.22 per cent respectively.

North America and Western Europe had the highest population penetration rates at 26.8 per cent and 26.5 per cent respectively in Q4 2008.

With a 25.73 per cent share, Western Europe has the largest portion of the global broadband market, followed by South and East Asia with a 22.76 per cent share. North America followed with a 21.53 per cent share and Asia Pacific was in fourth place with 15.4 per cent of the market.

Global household penetration also increased to 26 per cent, up 14 per cent from 22.3 per cent by the end of 2007 and up 3 per cent from 25.2 per cent in Q3 2008.

Global broadband population penetration was 7.1 per cent by the end of 2008, up 16 per cent on the same time a year ago when it was 6.1 per cent and up almost 3 per cent on the previous quarter when it was 6.9 per cent.

Last quarter (Q4 2008) had the lowest number of net additions of the last three years at just 13.8 million.

There were 410.9 million broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of Q4 2008.

In absolute numbers, the U.S. does well, with 79.07 million [broadband] subscribers, making it second only to China’s 83.37 million, but China’s subscriber base is growing faster.

Consultant Dell’Oro Group expects the global market for Wi-Fi access points installed by service providers to increase to 150,000 units in 2013, from 58,000 units last year.

Usage of Optimum Wi-Fi—offered free to Cablevision’s 2.4 million in-home Internet-access subscribers—has risen 50% a month since autumn 2008.

Almost five out of every 10 Californians lack access to broadband service or face barriers to access such as poor English skills, poverty or disabilities.

Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSM Association industry group, estimated 200 million to 300 million people are connected to the Internet through mobile networks now.

“We believe we have the potential to connect 2.4 billion people to the Internet by 2013 via mobile,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSM Association industry group.

Sales of netbooks are predicted to double this year, even as overall PC sales fall 12 percent, according to the research firm Gartner.

By the end of 2009, netbooks could account for close to 10 percent of the PC market, an astonishing rise in a short span.

One study done across multiple countries shows a correlation in which every 1% increase in broadband penetration corresponds to $2,000 per capita higher GDP. [CTIA report].

Perceived price seems to play almost as important a role [in whether people subscribe to broadband] as actual price differential; the reality is that broadband is 4 percent cheaper today and the price of dial-up is roughly 9 percent higher than those services were in 2005.

Many dial-up users say they cannot afford broadband services; 35 percent say the price of broadband would have to fall for them to subscribe.

Almost half of the dial-up users stated that modern electronic devices interfere with personal productivity, whereas almost 70 percent of broadband users say that these devices aid productivity.

Only about 61 percent of U.S. households subscribe to broadband service, and 70 percent of households headed by someone under 65 years of age receive broadband service.

There are 18 states in which the percentage of homes with access to broadband service from at least one provider is below 94 percent…on average well under 50 percent of the households in these states actually subscribe to a broadband service, less than the national average of 61 percent.

35 million households have access to broadband, but do not currently use this service.

As the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found, broadband nonusers don’t see relevance of the technology in their lives, making it unlikely that a taxpayer-subsidized network would suddenly change their minds.

83% of broadband users say they don’t know what their home connection speed is.

All tribal lands should be considered unserved, especially considering an anecdotal 5 to 8 percent broadband penetration rate.

Broadband is 4 percent cheaper today than in 2003, while dial-up is 9 percent more costly.

At the end of 2003, North Carolina began funding Business & Technology Telecenters.

Based on the concept that the digital divide is “relative” — meaning that it compares ICT developments in one country with those in another country — the Report shows that overall the magnitude of the global digital divide remains unchanged between 2002 and 2007.

In its latest EU Broadband Scorecard, ECTA reported that the EU’s leaders in broadband - Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands - had penetration rates above 30%, with the United Kingdom close behind.

Based on ITU estimates, 23 out of 100 inhabitants globally used the Internet at the end of 2008.

The European Competitive Telecommunications Association reported that the number of broadband connections in use across the European Union rose by 20% from September 2007 to September 2008, reaching a total of 110.5 million, or 22.5% of European households.

Research firm Solutions Research Group reported that that 70% of 18-34 year-old online Americans have watched TV online at some point, but only one-third of that group has ever viewed a show on a DVR or a TiVo.

55% to 60% of residents in the Vermont towns don’t have broadband access through cable providers or the local phone provider, FairPoint Communications Inc. (Estimates by Tim Nulty, as quoted in Wall Street Journal)

Leichtman Research Group reported that while only 8% of Web video watching adults say they watch less TV because of their Web viewing habits, 18% of Web video watching teens say they’re turning away from the tube thanks to the internet.

Demand for business Ethernet services in the United States grew 43% last year [2008], according to Vertical Systems Group, which measured the market’s growth in terms of business Ethernet ports.

Only 3% of online adults would pull the plug on cable to just watch video online, according to Leichtman Research Group.

Seven out of 10 people age 64 to 72 use the Internet to get health information.

According to Nielsen’s January [2009] VideoCensus data, total video streams over the course of the month crossed the 10 billion mark, and the overall number of unique viewers surpassed 135 million.

The [Nielsen] study found that nine out of 10 seniors go online to use email.

Two out of five people age 65 to 69 had broadband at home in 2008, four times greater than in 2005.

A Pew study found that people age 64 to 72 account for 7% of the Internet-using population (almost equal to their 9% slice of the U.S. adult population).

Roughly 45% of people between the ages of 70 and 75 were online in 2008, up from just a quarter in 2005 — the biggest growth in any age group found in the study. And 56% of people ages 65 to 69 were online last year.

The majority of job site visitors — 18.7 million — are still between the ages of 35 and 49. But people 65 and older were the fastest growing group by far, up 41% from the same time a year prior.

Nearly 3.6 million people age 65 and older visited career-development Web sites in January, according to a Nielsen Online report.

Only 24 percent of rural adults living outside of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), compared to 39 percent of urban and suburban adults in MSAs had broadband Internet in their homes (Horrigan & Murray, 2006).

Peha (2008) estimates that “one third of households in rural America cannot subscribe to broadband Internet services at any price” (2), while Horrigan (2008) cites the Pew Internet and America Life statistic that 24 percent of rural households do not purchase broadband because the service simply is not available.

With household broadband use of about 60 percent, the United States—along with most other countries—is playing catch-up with South Korea.

ConnectKentucky claims that 95 percent of all Kentuckians—546,000 new households—now have high-speed Internet access.

About one-fifth of Missiouri’s residents live in areas without access to high-speed Internet, according to a 2007 study from the Missouri Public Service Commission.

Americans watch on average 2.5 hours of online video per month, compared to 142 hours of television, according to data collected by Nielsen.

In both time spent and number of viewers, Internet video grew at a rate twice that of television [from Q4 ’07 to Q4 ’08].

A study of 3,000 people in Michigan, Texas and Kentucky found those in areas that received broadband Internet grants from the federal Rural Utilities Service quickly signed up for service, matching the penetration rates in cities.

As of 2007…almost 10 percent of U.S. households can subscribe to fiber broadband.

Fiber-optic service is also increasing in the U.S., with 11 million homes, or 9.6 percent of households, having access by the end of 2007.

The Swedish government used subsidies to aggressively spur broadband deployment.

OECD countries with the highest rate of broadband penetration in 2007 were South Korea, Iceland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland. In each of these countries, more than two-thirds of households subscribe to broadband.

When measured on a household basis instead of a per capita basis, U.S. ranking in the OECD measure of broadband penetration improves to 12th.

The Swedish government subsidized personal computer purchases via tax deductions for companies that bought computers for their employees personal use; and as a result, almost 90 percent of Swedes can get access to the Internet at home on a PC.

“With new cable modem technology becoming available, 19 out of 20 American homes will be able to have Internet service that is faster than any available now anywhere in the world.” (Saul Hansell, New York Times Bits Blog)

According to the e-NC Authority, a state entity dedicated to expanding high-speed Internet access, as of last year there were four [North Carolina] counties in which fewer than 50 percent of residents had access.

County officials estimate 45 percent of households and businesses in Chatham [County, NC] do not have high-speed Internet.

While the 2008 Global Information Technology Report rates the US broadband infrastructure 4th in the world and improving, the OECD data that tracks the percentage of consumers adopting broadband estimates the US to be in 15th place.  The conclusion is clear - the infrastructure deployment rate is good and improving; the consumer adoption rate is less so and stagnant.

Broadband usage is exploding at a rapid pace and is driven by trends like video and music downloading, photo sharing and online gaming, AT&T spokesperson Mike Barger said. If the trend continues, he said, AT&T would see its total bandwidth increase by four times in the next three years.

Internet trending research suggests that families are spending more of their leisure time during evening hours on Internet-based entertainment and communication applications such as YouTube, Xbox Live and Skype.

Farms east of the Mississippi River, especially in the South, use broadband Internet far less than those farms in the Great Plains, the Mountain West and the Pacific coast.

[In 2007] Mississippi had the lowest state average for broadband usage by farmers, but the average rate for broadband connection in the Mississippi Delta was 36%, five points over the U.S. average and 23% better than the South as a whole.

Where large farms constituted 20% or more of the county’s farm operators, more than 75% of those counties had rates of broadband connection that were above the U.S. average [in 2007].

33% of farms in 2007 had broadband connections.

In 2002, the Census found that half the farms in the country were connected to the Internet in some way (broadband or dial-up). By 2007, the percentage of farms with some kind of Internet connection inched up to 56.5%.

In urban counties, nearly 40% of farm operators had high speed Internet connections [in 2007]. (Federal Census of Agriculture)

31.3% of farms in rural counties had broadband connections [in 2007]. (Federal Census of Agriculture)

In Mississippi, only 2 out of 10 farms had a quick connection to the World Wide Web [in 2007]. (Federal Census of Agriculture)

Japan, South Korea and France have developed faster and less expensive broadband networks, but have also refrained thus far from implementing strict net neutrality rules.

Nearly 6 out of 10 farms in Connecticut had a high speed Internet connection in 2007. (Federal Census of Agriculture)

Approximately one-fourth of adult broadband users in the United States (approximately 35 million) are to varying degrees likely to sign up for a three-screen video service at some price between $65 and $105 per month.

The top six cable companies have 35 million broadband subscribers, compared with Google’s 149 million domestic unique users.

Rural Kentucky created or saved 63,000 jobs and increased wages by $1 billion by increasing broadband penetration from 65 to 95 percent.

A national, ubiquitous broadband infrastructure has four critical and complementary components: fixed broadband, wireless broadband, satellite broadband and broadband core and backbone transport.

About 57 percent of the nation uses broadband services, even though 91 percent of homes have access (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

Prices of about $10 or less per month is the threshold for greater [broadband] adoption (Rey Ramsey, chief executive of One Economy)

Phone companies around the world offering IPTV are expected to see a 32 percent increase in subscribers by 2014, according to a new report published by market research firm ABI Research.

James Assey, Executive VP of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association] noted that 20% of households in the U.S. don’t have computers - a barrier to subscribing to broadband service.

42 percent of rural residents who don’t have broadband at home say they have no use for it (Connected Nation study).

Boosting U.S. broadband adoption by 20% — putting America on par with a country like Denmark — would create 3 million new jobs (2007 Brookings Institution Study)

Approximately 5.7 million U.S. households will become new high-speed Internet customers this year, bringing the total number of broadband-connected homes to 74.5 million. That would represent 63 percent of U.S. households (Pike & Fisher Research).

Nearly half of U.S. households don’t have a high-speed Internet connection.

Connecticut currently has 1.5 million high-speed Internet lines; since June 30, 2006, that number has increased by 284,000.

An increase in broadband availability in Tennessee could generate $2.4 billion in economic impact, including the creation of nearly 50,000 jobs, according to a study by Connected Nation, a nonprofit organization that promotes broadband Internet access.

In Iowa, broadband is more widely available in rural areas than in urban areas, according to a state survey.

Worldwide subscriptions to telecom-delivered TV are expected to grow threefold by 2012, according to a report released Monday.

About 190 million Americans used the Internet in December [2009]. Worldwide, that number grew to more than 1 billion. (ComScore)

Statewide, 47 percent of Tennessee businesses have a Web site, a 12 percent increase from July 2007.

Businesses in Tennessee’s urban and rural areas saw the largest jump in broadband use over the past year, with a 12 percent gain in rural counties and a 16 percent gain in urban counties.

In Tennessee’s rural areas, home broadband usage expanded by 30 percent over the past year [according to a survey conducted by Connected Tennesse], and the adoption of broadband service by low-income families with children grew by 124 percent.

Statewide, residential use of high-speed Internet service—typically delivered by phone companies as DSL, cable and some wireless providers—increased 14 percent over the past year, compared to 12 percent growth nationwide, according to results of a residential survey conducted by Connected Tennessee.

Satellite connections are faster and more stable, which is why they are attracting interest from the likes of Google, as a way to provide Internet connections to the estimated 95 percent of Africans who have no access.

From 2002 to 2007, the number of Kenyans using cell phones grew almost tenfold to reach about a third of the population, many of whom did not have land lines, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Bandwidth usage is growing by an estimated 50% a year, especially due to online video and real-time applications, such as games and telephone calls, which require no-jitter connections.

About 60 percent of British households currently have broadband.

Forbes’ Most Wired Cities List:
1) Seattle
2) Atlanta
3) Washington, D.C.
4) Orlando
5) Boston
6) Miami
7) Minneapolis
8) Denver
9) New York
10) Baltimore
11) San Francisco
12) San Diego
13) Los Angeles
14) Portland, OR
15) Raleigh
16) Tampa
17) Phoenix
18) New Orleans
19) Sacramento
20) Charlotte
21) Chicago
22) Nashville
23) Milwaukee
24) Pittsburgh
25) Honolulu
26) Cleveland
27) Philadelphia
28) Cincinnati
29) Columbus
30) Austin

Of those who don’t subscribe to broadband [in Kentucky], more cite the service’s impracticality (44%) than its cost (23%) or lack of availability (14%).

Connect Kentucky estimates that broadband adoption in Kentucky increased 7% more than it would have without its work.

Connect Kentucky has so far spread broadband to an additional 300,000 residents.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocates $6 billion in funding for broadband deployment, with $2.825 billion in grants to be administered by the National Telecommunications Information Administration for “unserved” and “underserved” areas of the country.

The United States has the greatest total number of broadband subscribers—about 66 million—which is more than the total number of broadband subscribers of the top twelve ranked countries combined.

According to FCC Estimates, 82 percent of American households now have access to DSL service and 96 percent have access to cable modem service.

1 in 5 Americans do not have broadband for reasons that won’t be addressed by price cuts or a fiber node in the neighborhood. It will take time to get them up and running on broadband—probably longer than the impacts of the stimulus package are intended to last.

Pew Internet & American Life Project’s May 2008 survey found that 29% of broadband users say they already pay more for home broadband speeds that are higher than the standard ones advertised by their carriers.

Half of dial-up and non-users cite reasons such as “not interested” or “nothing could get me to switch.” Digital resources do not play enough of a role in their lives to justify a broadband connection.

Availability and price are the main issues for 1/3 of the adult population who do not have broadband service.

Q4 2008 saw the valuable 18-24 year old demographic spend more time watching internet-distributed video content than “traditional” broadcast television.

Broadband took 10 years to break 50% adoption…

Internet traffic was up 53% between mid-2007 and mid-2008.

46% of US broadband users have DSL.

54% of home broadband users subscribe to basic service.

U.S. broadband users pay $34.50 a month on average.

China has overtaken the U.S. in broadband.

Among Ohio businesses that do not subscribe to broadband, nearly half do not use a computer,

60% of all Ohio businesses use broadband service for their work. 

49% of Ohio residents without broadband say it’s because they don’t need it, which says that lack of demand is the largest barrier to adoption.

Among Ohio residents who do not subscribe to broadband service:

Roughly one-quarter (27%) of adult Americans are not internet users.

Global Internet User Estimate

Internet Usage by Family Income

Broadband penetration by technology top economies worldwide, December 2005

The average Internet user with high-speed home access does seven things online on a typical day.

61% of broadband users say they spend more time online since receiving the service.

About two-thirds (68%) of home broadband Internet users say they do more information searches online because of their high-speed connection.

Some 63% of broadband users have at one time or another downloaded games, video or pictures.

Four in ten broadband users (39%) have at one time or another created content for the Internet.

A 7% increase in broadband adoption could result in:

Broadband users spend 33% more time online than those with dial-up.

In the United States the percentage of Wi-Fi enabled classrooms in public universities and colleges rose from 34% in 2004 to 58% in 2006.

Between 2005 and 2006 the average price for a DSL connection fell by 19%. 16% for cable Internet connections.

Americans spend about 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet per day.

From 2008 to 2009 mobile-broadband data traffic grew by a whopping 158%

189m mobile-broadband connections generating on average 175 megabytes of traffic per month

In 2008…Americans consumed over 3,600 exabytes of information, or an average of 34 gigabytes per person per day

According to ComScore, Google handles 80 percent of European Web searches, compared with 65 percent in the United States.

Somewhere between 25% and 40% of Web traffic is video.

Fifty-two percent of online traffic is Web (HTTP) traffic, up from almost 42% in 2007.

Two years ago, 15,000 networks accounted for about 50% of online traffic; today, 100 networks out of over 35,000 contribute 60% of all online traffic.

The largest source of traffic is Google, which accounts for 6% of all Internet traffic globally.

According to a Comcast filing, Hulu represents just 4 percent of videos viewed.

According to comScore Inc. data, Google, with its properties, including YouTube Inc. , represents 55 percent of online videos viewed.

According to a Comcast filing, Comcast’s online video properties account for 0.3 percent of videos viewed online, with online video properties controlled by NBCU coming in at just 0.7 percent.

Forrester Research Inc. estimates that about 15 percent of passengers surf the Web on a Wi-Fi-enabled flight, although 80 percent of these users purchase Wi-Fi on subsequent flights.

Bittorrent traffic makes up only 20 per cent of traffic on the Internet.

Streaming tunes on an Internet radio station like Pandora draws down 60 megabytes each hour.

A 2007 survey of 2,000 workers from Salary.com Inc. found that Americans waste about 20% of their time at work, with 34.7% of those surveyed saying surfing the Internet is the biggest distraction.

According to the World Bank, users spend an average of 18 hours per week on the Internet.

According to the National Caucus of Black State Legislators, peer-to-peer traffickers account for 20% of Internet use.

Peak traffic is currently (2009) 37% of total available bandwidth on the 20 highest capacity U.S. routes.

The bandwidth used in the largest 30 intercity connections in the U.S. grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% during the period from 2002 to 2009, with some routes growing as much as 90%.

According to Nielson, the amount of time spent watching videos online was also up year-over-year, to 193.2 minutes per month, on average.

Analysts at Bernstein Research estimate that the iPhone in particular consumers 5-7 times the monthly bandwidth of an average wireless device—and twice the amount of an average smartphone.

According to a report by the University of California, San Diego, overall, from 1980 to 2008, the number of bytes we consume has increased 6 percent each year, the researchers said, adding up to a 350 percent increase over 28 years.

A report by the University of California, San Diego, calculates that American households collectively consumed 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008.

Nick Bilton, “The American Diet: 34 Gigabytes a Day,” New York Times Bits [blog]. December 9, 2009.

CTIA estimates more than 20 percent of households use only wireless for voice, and cellphone users make more than 290,000 calls daily to 911 and other emergency services.

Furthermore, the top 20% of subscribers account for fully 80% of total Internet traffic.

Owing to a Spanish language client Ares is huge in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America, where it accounts for as much as 34% of upstream traffic and 9% of downstream traffic, a far cry from its modest global contribution of about 1% of all traffic.

In an average month, the top 1% of subscribers account for 25% of total Internet traffic

In the upstream direction, the top 1% of subscribers account for 40% of total traffic

Each average subscriber accounts for twice as much Facebook and MySpace traffic than does each consumption king

Each hour during peak time, about 10% of all households have seen a YouTube video, and almost 25% have seen a Flash video in general

YouTube alone is about 5% of global Internet traffic, and is about 10% of all Internet traffic in Africa

Real-Time Entertainment has almost doubled its share of total Internet traffic from 2008 to 2009, while Gaming has increased its share by more than 50%

At a global level, P2P Filesharing declined by 25 percent as a share of total traffic, to account for just over 20 percent of total bytes.

Traffic to and from gaming consoles increased by more than 50% per subscriber, demonstrating not only the popularity of online gaming, but also the growing use of game consoles as sources of “traditional” entertainment such as movies and TV shows.

Compared to last year’s results, real-time entertainment traffic (streaming audio and video, peercasting, place-shifting, Flash video) has exploded to now account for 26.6 percent of total traffic in 2009, up from 12.6 percent in 2008.

BitTorrent has emerged as by far the leading peer-to-peer filesharing network, but P2P filesharing has dropped by 25 percent as a share of total traffic to account for just over 20.4 percent of all bytes.

The research also shows that over an average month the top one percent of subscribers account for 25 percent of total Internet traffic, showing a vast difference between the data needs of most network users and the consumption kings.

After decades of new allocations, the spectrum pipeline is drying up, and it will take years for any new spectrum to reach the market.

Actual median broadband speeds lag behind the advertised rate (in Mbps) by ~50% .

By 2015, video will account for half of all mobile broadband traffic, and 53% by 2017.  This is up from a third in 2009. 

In the rest of the world, the sheer amount of data video users will consume – made available through legal sources such as Hulu and Project Canvas – should be of concern to mobile broadband providers.

Global monthly data traffic will grow from 44,487 terabytes per month in 2009, to 1.8 exabytes per month in 2017.

North America will account for only 14% of video consumption, where Asia Pacific will consume 53%.  Europe will account for 26%.

Nearly three quarters (1.3 exabytes) of [new broadband traffic] will be video traffic – a CAGR of 64% over 2009.

Broadband traffic via portables [will] reach 1.8 exabytes per month by 2017 – a CAGR of 59% over 2009.

Overall demand for mobile data is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 125% over the next few years and at rates 100 times greater than voice traffic will grow over the next decade.

As the Pew Internet and American Life Project recently found, “some 74% of internet users – representing 55% of the adult population – went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election.”

According to a recent report from Arbor Networks, more than half (52%) of general Internet traffic is web-based, up from 42% in 2007. The remaining traffic comes from email and private networks.

A single YouTube viewing consumes nearly 100 times as much cellular bandwidth as a voice call

Data collector AdMob reports that mobile Web page requests grew 9% from July to August—a 180% annual growth rate.

According to a recent report from Arbor Networks, two years ago it took more than 5,000 companies to handle just half the world’s Internet traffic, today that volume is controlled by about 150 companies.

According to a recent report from Arbor Networks, Google alone controls 7% of the world’s Internet traffic.

According to a recent report from Arbor Networks, about 30 large companies – including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, which Arbor referred to as “hypergiants”—control early a third of all Internet traffic today.

According to a recent report from Arbor Networks, the majority of Internet traffic now goes through direct peers and does not flow through incumbent tier-one telecom networks.

Facebook uses more than 1 petabyte of storage space to manage its users’ 40 billion photos.

Facebook uses more than 1 petabyte of storage space to manage its users’ 40 billion photos.

According to AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, the top 3 percent of its smartphone users are responsible for as much as 40 percent of smartphone data traffic.

According to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works, women make up 55% of users on the photo-sharing site Flickr, as they also do on FriendFeed.

According to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works, professional-networking site LinkedIn has an equal gender demographic, with 50% men and 50% women.

According to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works, YouTube’s users are half women and half men.

According to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works, 64% of users of MySpace are female, and on the social-network-creation site Ning, 59% of users are women.

According to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works, on Facebook, 57% of users are women and 43% are men, with the same gender breakdown on Twitter and Yelp.

The amount of bandwidth needed for two or three simultaneous phone calls in a household is much higher for individuals using sign language for video communication over the Internet than for individuals who are just using audio.

If the H1N1 swine-flu pandemic arrives this fall… emergency planners say that school-age children and telecommuting adults could be accessing the network simultaneously, potentially overloading the public Internet’s capacity.

According to research by Bret Swanson, U.S. Internet traffic will continue to rise 50% annually through 2015. Cisco estimates wireless data traffic will rise 131% per year through 2013.

Since 2004, bandwidth per capita in the U.S. grew to three megabits per second from just 262 kilobits per second, and monthly Internet traffic increased to two billion gigabytes from 170 million gigabytes—both tenfold leaps.

People in Japan can upload a high definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the U.S. average upload speed.  Yet, people in Japan pay about the same as we do in the U.S. for their internet connection.

Apple said that more than two billion applications have been downloaded from the year-old App Store. 

According to Nielsen, as of August 2009, the time spent on social networking and blogging sites accounts for 17% of the total time spent online, a number up 6% from a year ago. Neilsen says this change reflects a growing desire for people to stay connected with each other, communicate and share.

According to new figures from Nielsen, the amount of time spent surfing social networking and blogging sites had tripled since last year.

Only 10 percent of the 400 million mobile phones in India are internet enabled and only a fraction of those individuals actually subscribe to internet service.

Approximately 136 million people in the U.S. watched online videos in July, a 14% increase from the year-earlier period, according to Nielsen Co.

According to Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice-president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, mobile uploads to YouTube have increased 1700 percent in the last six months.

According to TeleGeography, in 2009, international internet bandwidth increased 64%. In 2009, network operators added 9.4Tbps of new capacity—exceeding the 8.7Tbps in existence just two years earlier.

According to TeleGeography, since 2007, the annual growth rate of international Internet capacity has exceeded 60%.

According to new data from TeleGeography, broadband traffic growth in mature markets experienced rapid growth:

According to new data from TeleGeography, international broadband traffic growth was fastest in emerging markets, such as Eastern Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East. Traffic from each of these regions grew well over 100% in 2009.

According to new data from TeleGeography, international broadband traffic growth accelerated to 79% in 2009, up from 61% in 2008.

In July 2009, 158 million U.S. Internet users viewed more than 21 billion online videos, and last year YouTube alone dwarfed the bandwidth that the entire Internet consumed in the year 2000.

comScore reported that NBC and Fox’s free online TV venture Hulu attracted 38 million viewers in July.

According to Michael Nelson, visiting professor of communication, culture and technology at Georgetown University, the amount of bandwidth available nationwide will increase 50- to 100-fold and more than 100 billion devices will connect to the Internet worldwide over the next 10 years “unless we really screw things up.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by late 2008, 20% of U.S. households were mobile-only, compared with 7% in the first half of 2005.

According to a new Forrester Research report, more than four in five U.S. adults online use social media at least once a month.

Approximately 136 million people in the U.S. watched online videos in July, a 14% increase from the year-earlier period, according to Nielsen Co.

According to Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice-president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, mobile uploads to YouTube have increased 1700 percent in the last six months.

According to comScore, more than 100 million U.S. users watch an average of 68 videos each on YouTube every month.

According to Magna Global, the U.S. online video ad market will jump 32% in 2009 to $699 million and top $1 billion in 2011. This would still be less than 3% of total U.S. TV ad-spend.

Research firm eMarketer, which tracks all Web sites, projects that ad revenue will almost double to $2.1 billion in 2011 from $1.1 billion this year.

Since it was first included in the study in 2002, Google has topped the rankings of top Internet search engines in seven of eight yearly American Consumer Satisfaction Index surveys.

Based on a sample of 100,000 random unique mobile users that Bango saw during May 2009, about 69 percent of mobile Internet access users used a mobile operator data connection only during the month.

According to comScore, Facebook was the world’s fourth most visited Web site in June, with more than 250 million members.

29% of African Americans use the internet on their handheld on an average day, also about half again the national average of 19%. 

Compared with 2007, when 12% of African Americans used the internet on their mobile on the average day, use of the mobile internet is up by 141%. 

48% of African Americans have at one time used their mobile device to access the internet for information, emailing, or instant messaging, half again the national average of 32%. 

Laptop and mobile wireless account for the vast majority of wireless access, as 51% of Americans have gotten online using either of these two methods. 

Google currently attracts some 65% of search traffic, compared with less than 30% for Microsoft and Yahoo combined.

Standard phone system voice calls transmit data at the rate of about 10,000 bits per second. But digital videos require bandwidths of about 2 million bits per second.

According to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 53 percent of African Americans said accessing information wirelessly is very important, and 22 percent said the same for sharing or posting. For Hispanics, the answers were respectively 54 and 24 percent.

According to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 56 percent of all Americans have gotten to the internet via some kind of wireless gadget, including cell phones, laptops, game consoles, and MP3 players.

50 percent of respondents in an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project told researchers that wireless internet is “very important” because “I can stay easily in touch with other people.”

On an average day, twenty nine percent of African-Americans access the internet on a handheld mobile device, according to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

The share of white respondents in an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project who disclose that they’ve ever gone online via their mobile phone has grown from 21 to 28 percent, and African Americans it has jumped from 29 to 48 percent.

85 percent of respondents in an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project told researchers that they have a smart phone or cell phone, but only 32 percent said they’ve used it to go online.

40 percent of broadband users in the 18-year-plus category are heavy internet users, accounting for 80 percent of the video-streaming minutes per month.

Researchers found that successfully connecting to a website dramatically improved when surfing the mobile versions of that web site - by 20%, to be exact.

The average success rate for performing various tasks on the mobile web was only 59%. Compare that to 80% for the same tasks when performed on a PC.

Mobile email consumes around 69% of a wireless data network’s signaling resources, despite only accounting for around 4% of the volume of data carried by the network.

Web surfing accounts for around 70% of wireless network data volume, but uses only around 12% of the signaling resources.

While the average download speed for residential broadband subscribers in the United States is currently 2.3 Mbps, residential subscribers in Japan now average 63 Mbps. Moreover, service providers in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore either offer 1 Gbps residential service now or are planning to have comprehensive 1 Gbps residential service in the near future, and South Korea is complementing its fiber rollout with 10 Mbps wireless 4G services for mobility.

YouTube now serves more than 200 million video streams a day and controls 40% market share of the world’s online video views.

According to Lloyd Salvage, vice-president of global marketing for AT&T, 40 per cent of all the traffic passing across the company’s network is video.

Microsoft currently takes less than 10% of Internet searches and has struggled for years to compete with Google, which does more than 60% of Internet searches, in the largest and most lucrative area of Internet advertising

Wireless data traffic grew 1,000 percent last year.

A single high-end phone (such as an iPhone or Blackberry) generates more data traffic than 30 basic-feature cell phones, while a laptop aircard generates more data traffic than 450 basic-feature cell phones [Cisco].

Only about 25 percent of rural households using the Internet have high-speed access, compared to more than 40 percent of urban households.

By 2013, there will be 500 million multicore chips in use, which will mean faster speeds in all sorts of devices.

Business IP network traffic will grow 33 percent between 2008 and 2013.

More than 90 percent of estimated Internet traffic in 2013 will come from video- be it television, video on demand, or file sharing between computers. 

Cisco predicts the amount of data flowing to mobile devices will double each year, increasing 66 times by 2013. 

Cisco expects Internet traffic (including delivery of content to television and mobile phones) to reach about 56 Exabytes per month, up from about 9 Exabytes per month in 2008. 

Internet traffic will increase fivefold over the next five years, driven in large part by a jump in the amount of video transmitted across the network [Cisco Systems].

Four-fifths of wireless devices in the US can tap into mobile broadband [CTIA].

Spam now accounts for 90.4 percent of all e-mail, according to a report from security vendor Symantec.

About 15% of the 25 million U.S. smart-phone users access social-networking Web sites “almost every day,” compared with about 3.6% of users of more basic “feature phones,” according to comScore M:Metrics Inc.

There is an increasing trend towards content providers who are routing and peering “privately,” instead of at the traditional public exchange points.

Research firm comScore Inc. reported that Microsoft and Yahoo both saw slight month-to-month dips in their respective shares of the U.S. Internet search market in April, with Microsoft at 8.2% and Yahoo at 20.4%. Google edged up 0.5% to a 64.2% share of searches during that month.

Nineteen countries have blocked a Google service for a time during the past three years, and 38 countries have sought Web content filtering.

IDC says the digital universe will double every 18 months.

In 2008 alone, IDC says the world created 487 billion gigabytes of information, up 73% from 2007.

Nielsen Online said Hulu served up 373 million video streams in April, up from 348 million in March and 309 million in February.

While Nielsen reported 8.9 million visitors to Hulu in March, another measurement firm, comScore, counted 42 million.

Hulu’s growth has been explosive, up 490 percent year over year, according to Nielsen Online.

Users of iPhone download games, video and other Web data at two to four times the rate of other smartphone users, according to comScore.

According to World Internet Usage Statistics, Asia and Europe together account for 65% of Internet usage in the world, and in both regions that Internet usage is primarily through handheld devices (smartphones, mobile Internet devices, or personal digital assistants).

Today roughly 40% of the traffic on [AT&T’s] networks worldwide has a video element to it.[William Archer, chief marketing officer for AT&T Business Solutions]

The amount of traffic generated each month by YouTube is now equivalent to the amount of traffic generated across the entire internet in all of 2000.

Monthly traffic across the internet is running at about eight exabytes. A recent study by the University of Minnesota estimated that traffic was growing by at least 60 per cent a year, although that did not take into account plans for greater internet access in China and India.

“[AT&T’s] network is now handling 17 petabytes per day [in total Internet traffic], and 40 percent of that is video,” says Sam Farraj, AVP, Strategy Product Development, Content Distribution, AT&T. “That will grow to 65 percent in the next 5 years.”

AT&T confirms that all of its public networks are being filled up with video-based IP traffic.

Comscore reports that online video traffic spiked 34 percent in 2008.

Cisco’s famous “Zettaflood” report last year predicted that video would make up half of the Internet’s traffic by 2012, when Internet traffic would hit 522 exabytes.

Time Warner said its research found that about 30 percent of its customers download less than 1 gigabyte per month.

According to surveys by NCSA and the Pew Internet American Life Project, 79% of teens who use the Internet are not careful about sharing personal information, yet only 3% of state school curriculums include lessons about smart use of social networks and chat rooms.

According to a new global TV consumption survey by the National Association of Broadcasters, the number of people who said they would watch TV on a computer increased from 61% in the initial survey to 74% this time around.

More notebook machines will be sold worldwide this year than desktops, the first time in the industry’s history, according to the research firm IDC.

Missouri stood alone as the only state in the Top 10 to show an increase in narrowband penetration year-over-year, and in fact, was one of only two states in the country to do so. (The other state was Utah, with a surprising 30% increase.)

The District of Columbia continued to have the highest percentage of narrowband connections in the fourth quarter as observed by Akamai, though the percentage is trending in the right direction, with a nearly seven percent quarterly decline.

Internationally, the percentage of connections to Akamai at speeds greater than 2 Mbps continues to be more clustered than the “high broadband” data, with only 12% separating No. 1 Tunisia (96%) and No. 10 Germany (84%) — the gap was 20% in the first quarter of 2008, 15% in the second quarter of 2008, and 13% in the third quarter of 2008.

Maintaining the trend from the prior three quarters of 2008, the East Coast of the United States was once again very well represented in the Top 10 list of U.S. states with the greatest levels of high broadband (>5 Mbps) connectivity, taking eight of the top 10 slots.

At the end of 2008, approximately 19% of Internet connections around the world were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps.

There were 187 countries with fewer than 1 million unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai in the fourth quarter of 2008, 146 with under 100,000 unique IP addresses, and 38 with fewer than 1,000 unique IP addresses.

The United States ranked 17th globally, with an average connection speed of 3.9 Mbps, up approximately 8% from the average connection speed for the first quarter of 2008.

On a global basis, year-over-year, Akamai saw the number of unique IP addresses more than double in 19 countries — Turks and Caicos led the list with 695% growth.

In 1999, 91% of data from Asia passed through the United States at some point on its journey, but by 2008, that had fallen to just 54%.

In 1999, 70% of data from Africa passed through the United States, but by 2008, that number decreased to just 6%.

A report published in December by telecommunications research firm Telegeography noted that rapid growth in Internet capacity around the world over the last decade has led to a diminished role for the United States as an Internet hub, with dramatic shifts in the amount of traffic that passes through the United States from other continents.

IT security firm Sophos published its Security Threat Report 2009, which noted that the top 5 malware-hosting countries in 2008 consisted of the United States, China (including Hong Kong), Russia, Germany, and South Korea.

The trend in attack traffic distribution continues to be relatively consistent with the prior quarters, with the top 10 countries as the source for just under 72% of observed attack traffic.

Throughout 2008, the United States, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan were consistently among the top 10 countries that generated the highest percentages of attack traffic.

Looking at observed “narrowband” (<256 Kbps) connections, Mayotte and Equatorial Guinea were the “slowest” countries, with 98% and 96% of connections to Akamai, respectively, occurring at speeds below 256 Kbps.

In the United States, Delaware also maintained its top position, with 62% of connections to Akamai occurring at 5 Mbps or greater, and the highest average connection speed in the United States, at 7.3 Mbps.

South Korea had the highest levels of “high broadband” (>5 Mbps) connectivity for the fourth consecutive quarter, and the highest average connection speed, at 15 Mbps.

AT&T, Inc., has estimated that by 2018, mobile data traffic will grow between 250% and 600%. [CTIA report].

“Mobile broadband networks can only meet consumer demands for more and faster mobile broadband through access to more licensed spectrum, and deployment of more infrastructure,” [Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research LLC].

Mobile broadband networks are going to reach their capacity due to the growing number of bandwidth-intensive data applications such as streaming video, so the federal government must begin the process soon of freeing up more spectrum for carriers [CTIA report].

The free video Web site Hulu, a joint venture of NBC Universal and the News Corporation, counted 35 million unique viewers in February — only a fraction of the hundreds of millions who watch TV every month, but a 42 percent jump from January, according to comScore.

In Western Europe alone, the number of mobile-broadband users will grow by 50% to 27m this year, according to IDC, an analyst firm. Worldwide, there are thought to be around 100m.

Hulu had more than 232 million streams to 7.2 million unique viewers in January [2009], after a slight dip in December [2008] when it served up 216 million streams to 6.6 million uniques.

YouTube had 5.8 billion streams and 92 million unique viewers in January [2009], up from 5.5 billion streams to 84 million people in December [2008].

Widespread consumer use of broadband video seems to be contingent on Internet platform video content becoming more easily accessible via home television sets.

Thirty-three percent of those surveyed indicated that watching video over broadband Internet increased their television viewing time, vs. 13 percent who indicated it decreased their traditional television viewing.

An additional thirty-two million lighter broadband video users report being open to more TV programs via the Internet.

Online video (including broadband video at work and in the home) was shown to add to overall video viewing more frequently than it replaced traditional television viewing in the home, representing a net audience gain to total television viewing.

An estimated 81 million people, or 63% of the 129 million people who access the Internet over broadband in the U.S., watch broadband video at home or at work. This number increased from 70 million in September 2006 to 81 million in March 2007, a jump of 16% in just six months.

Internet video viewers spent just under three hours on that a month [in the fourth quarter of 2008], or 22 more minutes than the prior quarter, a nearly 15% increase.

Internet video users increased 2.3% to 123 million people in the fourth quarter of 2008.

About 136 million people watched online video content in January, up 16% from the same period in 2008, according to Nielsen Online.

The average annual global Internet traffic growth rate currently appears to be in to 50-60 percent range.

Hong Kong residential traffic volumes in August 2008 were up only 0.1 percent over the year before.

Internet exchanges in Europe saw their growth rates dip from 84 percent (2006-2007) to 56 percent (2007-2008).

Internet traffic growth rates are down to about 30 percent a year in Japan.

Google’s YouTube accounted for half of the 13% increase in monthly online video viewing in December [2008], to a record 14.3 billion.

In December [2008], U.S. Internet users watched a record 14.3 billion online videos, up 41% compared with 10.1 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to Internet audience-measurement firm comScore.

Hulu, which was created by NBC and Fox, offers many TV shows online and had a 57 percent increase in viewership in the last six months of 2008.

According to a Nielsen report, Internet use averaged more than 27 hours a month per person [in 2008], an increase of an hour and a half.

In December [2008], almost 100 million viewers in the United States watched 5.9 billion YouTube videos, according to comScore.

Streaming a standard-definition movie over broadband will likely consume as much bandwidth as a full month of average Web use.

The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 10.1 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten. [December, 2008]

The duration of the average online video was 3.2 minutes. [December, 2008]

48.7 million viewers watched 367 million videos on MySpace.com (7.6 videos per viewer). [December, 2008]

98.9 million viewers watched 5.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (59.2 videos per viewer). [December, 2008]

The average online video viewer watched 309 minutes of video, or more than 5 hours. [December, 2008]

78.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video. [December, 2008]

Nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December [2008].

Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed (41 percent online video market share).