Internet Videos Spawn Performance Anxiety - Rural-Urban Broadband Gap Closing - US Broadband Penetration at 66.7% Among Active Internet Users

Web Site Optimization, a leading web site optimization provider and publisher of the weblog: The Bandwidth Report, announced today that Streaming media is hot, but servers and users are even hotter. As higher bandwidth content streams to more bandwidth-hungry users quality of service can suffer. Some industry experts are wondering if the existing infrastructure can scale to handle the load. Meanwhile, the rural-urban broadband gap is closing according to PEW Internet. The US continued its inexorable climb to 66.67% in broadband penetration among active Internet users in January 2006.
For the full “February 2006 Bandwidth Report” visit http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0602/

Internet Video Growth Spawns Performance Anxiety

As website content increases faster than bandwidth, performance can suffer (King 2003). Users are experiencing degraded VOIP calls, vitiated videos, and slow servers struggling to handle the increased workload. Thousands of popular sites have turned to Content Delivery Networks (CDN) like Akamai (over 80% market share) to help maintain performance. In fact, CDNs report that revenue from streaming video and Internet radio is growing at over 40% per year, with popular sites spending $450 million a year to keep impatient users happy (Pallis & Vakali 2006). However, some experts wonder if CDNs and the Internet can scale to applications like IPTV, where longer videos could potentially be watched by millions (Cringely 2006, Borland 2006).

A two-tiered Internet is one stop-gap measure, with prioritized packets passing their lesser brethren over Metcalf's knee (King 2006). However, as streaming media grows from short clips to long-playing TV shows server process capacity comes into play. P2P networks are one possibility, but some users are reluctant to share their precious computer resources with the major television networks (Slashdot 2006) and pay for P2P content (see Figure 1). http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0602/

While usage of digital audio and video is growing in the US (Borland 2006, Comscore 2005), digital video uptake is at a relatively early stage in Europe, according to INDICARE (Dufft 2006). In a survey of 2,731 European Internet users INDICARE found that while 61% have watched digital videos on their computer, only 22% watch videos frequently (see Figure 2). Portable players such as mobile phones and iPods are used by 22% of those surveyed to watch digital video, while nearly half of these users (10%) watch videos frequently. Apple's iPod currently dominates the MP3 player market, selling over 3 million songs a day (Clarke 2006).

Rural-Urban Broadband Penetration Gap Closing

According to a recent survey by PEW Internet the gap between rural and urban high-speed users is closing. While rural Americans lag urban users in broadband penetration, the gap has been closing rapidly in the past two years (see Figure 3). 24% of rural Americans have broadband access to the Internet, while 39% of urban and suburban dwellers have high-speed connections.

Home Connectivity in the US

US broadband penetration grew to 66.67% in January. Narrowband users (56Kbps or less) now comprise 33.33% of active Internet users, down 1.1 percentage points from 34.43% in December (see Figure 4).
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0602/

Broadband Growth Trends in the US

In January 2006, broadband penetration in US homes rose 1.1 percentage points to 66.67% up from 65.57% in December. This increase of 1.1 points is lower than the average increase in broadband of 1.17 points per month over the last six months. At the current growth rate, broadband penetration among active Internet users in US homes should break 70% by mid April of 2006 (see Figure 5). Note that this projection continues to be pushed further into the future with each passing month.

Work Connectivity

Most workers in the US enjoy high-speed connections to the Internet. Most use a high-speed line such as a T1 connection, and share bandwidth between computers connected to an Ethernet network. The speed of each connection decreases as more employees hook up to the LAN. As of January of 2006, of those connected to the Internet, 87.98% of US users at work enjoy a high-speed connection, up 0.45 percentage points from the 87.53% share in December. At work, 12.02% connect at 56Kbps or less (see Figure 6).
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0602/

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About http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/] The Bandwidth Report[/url]

The Bandwidth Report is a monthly roundup of connectivity trends in the US and elsewhere. Each month's bandwidth report offers the latest statistics in Internet connectivity and broadband trends, including:

Home Connectivity in the US

Broadband Growth in the US

Work Connectivity

Broadband Trends in the US, Canada, and other countries

The February 2006 Bandwidth Report is available at:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0602/

About Web Site Optimization

Don't Make Me Wait! The new book titled "Speed Up Your Site – Web Site Optimization" by Andy King, and the companion web site are about designing "speedy" web sites with techniques that…

Cut file size and download times in half

Speed up site load time to satisfy customers

Engage users with fast response times and flow stimulus

Increase usability, boost profits, and slash bandwidth costs

Improve search engine rankings and web page conversions

Andy King is also the founder of WebReference.com and JavaScript.com, both award-winning developer sites from internet.com. Created in 1995 and subsequently acquired by Mecklermedia (now Jupitermedia) in 1997, WebReference has grown into one of the most popular developer sites on the Internet. While he was Managing Editor of WebReference.com and JavaScript.com, Andy became the "Usability Czar" at internet.com, where he optimized the speed and usability of their sites. In addition to his consulting work, he continues to write the monthly Bandwidth Report and the “Speed Tweak of the Week” for www.websiteoptimization.com.