Video Streaming Dominates Internet Traffic in Rural U.S.: Calix Report

By Mini Swamy

TMCnet Contributor

 

With increasing broadband speeds, usage patterns of broadband in rural regions of America also underwent a transformation, especially in the second quarter, when Internet traffic by rural consumers grew and more video was streamed and newer technologies came into place.

 

The latest Calix (News - Alert) U.S. Rural Broadband Report, which analyzed data utilizing a Software-as-a-Service model, Flow Analyze, gave not only an overall view of traffic volumes, but the types of apps riding on the network.

 

Confirming that Internet traffic increased by 53 percent quarter-over-quarter, the report also noted that video streaming dominated and constituted 62 percent of all downstream traffic, much more than all Internet traffic in rural networks in Q2.

 

What also accounted for the increase was the implementation of new copper technologies, access to media in rural U.S., migration of content to the cloud, and the presence of a plethora of video consuming devices.

 

While the Midwest shot ahead of the West for upstreaming media traffic, the Northeast maintained its position as the leading regional generator of online shopping traffic. Online gaming continued to be dominant in the southeast region.

 

Although rural U.S. broadband subscribers experienced maximum peak downstream speeds of more than 3Mbps - a 12-percent increase over Q1 - almost two-thirds of subscribers experienced peak speeds that fell below the 4Mbps target of the Connect America Fund.

 

 Eight percent reported peak broadband rates of over 10Mbps and some reported speed of almost 1Gbps both upstream and downstream.

 

The report, the third in a series of reports planned to be issued quarterly, was based on Internet traffic information drawn from over 65 U.S. communications service providers for Q2 2012.

 

Miguel Alonso, vice president of software products at Calix, was confident that the trend would continue and promised to provide deeper insight and analysis as the firm tracked more apps and endpoints across the U.S.

 

In related news, high-speed fiber broadband is now available to the first homes and businesses in Newbridge, and this BT (News - Alert) investment is an ambitious project to take world class broadband speeds to 96 percent of Welsh homes and businesses by the end of 2015.

 

It is expected to give a major boost to the local economy.