Study finds prime time on the Internet is 11 p.m.

Sep 1, 2009 - It's 11 p.m. Do you know where your neighbors are?

Chances are they're online. According to a study, North Americans have been staying up late to do their Internet surfing this summer, so late that the peak usage for the whole day has been at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

That appears to be a shift from previous years, when most Internet activity was in the daytime.

The new study by Chelmsford, Mass.-based Internet security firm Arbor Networks found that people using the Internet at work and school produce a smaller traffic peak around 4 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays.

Internet activity then declines as people head home. At 8 p.m. Eastern, U.S. and Canadian home Internet traffic starts spiking, and stays surprisingly strong past midnight, Arbor found. At 2 a.m. Eastern, overall traffic is as high as it is at 9 a.m., when people are logging in at work.

Of course, 11 p.m. Eastern time is just 8 p.m. on the West Coast. But the Eastern and Central time zones account for three-quarters of the U.S. population, so it's clear there's lot of late-night traffic.

It also seems North Americans are staying up much later on the Internet than Europeans. Their traffic peaks when it's 9 p.m. in Western and Central Europe, and then drops sharply.

So what is it that keeps us up at night?

Internet video, including both YouTube and pornography, appears to be a big part of the answer, according to Arbor's Craig Labovitz. Video usage peaks at midnight Eastern, later than any other traffic.

Gaming is another big evening activity, but one that's most intense between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern, coinciding with TV's prime time for most Americans. Labovitz found a jump in gaming traffic at exactly 8 p.m. Eastern, and speculates that it's caused by "World of Warcraft" players who prearrange to get together at that time to tackle virtual monsters.

Arbor gathers data from Internet service providers that account for about half of North American traffic. The study looked at 10 weekdays in July. Labovitz said there was a chance that children on summer vacation could be affecting the numbers, and plans to keep watching traffic patterns in different seasons.

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Internet providers seek low broadband

Sep 1, 2009 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. Internet service providers urged regulators to adopt a conservative definition of "broadband," arguing for minimum speeds that were substantially below many other nations.

The submissions were filed with the Federal Communications Commission which had sought comments by August 31 on how the agency should define broadband for a report to be submitted to Congress early next year.

The Obama administration is seeking ways to extend broadband services to both unserved Americans living in rural areas and to make broadband affordable for those living in urban areas.

Some of the submissions from service providers argued for a definition that even undercut an international ranking of U.S. Internet speed.

A 2008 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that the United States ranked 19th with an advertised rate of 9.6 megabits per second (mbps). The top three countries were Japan with 92.8 mbps, Korea with 80.8 mbps and France with 51 mbps.

"The definition must include those services that Americans actually need and want -- and can afford -- to participate in the Internet-driven economy," AT&T Inc said in its comment letter to the FCC.

AT&T said regulators should keep in mind that not all applications like voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) or streaming video, that require faster speeds, are necessarily needed by unserved Americans.

Verizon Communications Inc and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc, urged the FCC to maintain speeds of at least 0.768 mbps downstream and 0.200 mbps upstream.

Those speeds are being used by the U.S. government in administering $7.2 billion in loans and grants for broadband projects as part of the U.S. economic stimulus package.

"It would be disruptive and introduce confusion if the commission were to now create a new and different definition," Verizon said in its letter.

Comcast Corp, the biggest cable provider, said that "simpler is better" and that the actual online experience of any particular consumer at any particular moment in time involves a wide range of factors.

"Many of which are outside the control of the Internet service provider," Comcast said in its letter, which argued for defining "basic" broadband as having a downstream and upstream speed of 0.256 mbps.

However, Free Press, a public interest group, urged Congress and the FCC to set the bar high and to consider broadband as a critical infrastructure.

In its submission, Free Press urged the FCC to craft a definition with a minimum upstream and downstream speed of at least 5 mbps for each end user.

"We fully recognize that incumbents for the most part will scoff at a symmetrical definition," wrote Derek Turner, research director at Free Press. "The commission must ignore any such self-serving pleas for watered-down standards."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told Reuters in July that broadband was the "the major infrastructure challenge of our generation."

(Reporting by John Poirier; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Viewers hunger for Web and TV at same time: study

Sep 1, 2009 - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

U.S. television viewers are increasingly turning on the Web, tuning into television and not missing a beat on either, as simultaneous TV and Internet use continues to rise, research firm Nielsen said on Wednesday.

Nielsen said in a report that 57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers.

As the heightened importance of the Web changes the way Americans watch TV, industry executives and marketers are considering ways to adjust their broadcast shows and play into viewers' simultaneous use of the Internet.

"What we're finding is that there's a connection between the two media, and that innovative marketers can take advantage of that," said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for Nielsen.

"One medium can be used to reinforce the other," he said.

Broadcasters can expect some viewers will turn to the Web to learn more about their shows, but they have to be wary of losing the attention of their viewers.

The Nielsen study found the average TV viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28 percent of the time they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television.

The percentage of time U.S. consumers watch TV and use the Internet simultaneously is about the same as a similar Nielsen study from last year, but the total number of individuals doing that rose because more of them have the Web, Holmes said.

The report also found TV consumption in the United States continues to increase, with the average viewer watching 141 hours per month, a 1.5 percent rise from a year ago.

Holmes said even as viewership of videos on the Internet and on mobile phones increases, Americans still prefer to watch video on their television, as shown by how many more hours they spend in front of the tube.

"The possibility of watching (video) anyplace has really increased dramatically, but really the rule of thumb is that you watch it on the best screen," he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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