Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
 Despite the brouhaha last year over Netflix splitting its streaming and DVD rental services, effectively doubling the cost of having both, the company posted better than expected Q4 results this week.
Netflix needed the boost. It saw its stock price slide 60 percent after the price hike and a failed attempt to split itself into two companies last year.
But Netflix earned revenue of $876 million in Q4, compared with $596 million in the same period the year before, although net earnings actually dropped to $41 million or 73 cents a share compared with $47 million and 87 cents a share a year ago.
Despite a loss of 800,000 subscribers in Q3, the company saw Q4 subscriber numbers rise to 24.4 million, up from 23.7 million last year.
The company faces competition from Amazon, Hulu, and other streaming video sources.
We find Netflix particularly useful to watch those novelistic TV series, especially when they’re available to stream. We caught Downton Abbey, Spartacus, and a bevy of older BBC productions that way.
You can hear Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, at the upcoming Southeastern Venture Conference, Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1.
Tags: Amazon, Dowton Abbey, Marc Randolph, Netflix, SEVC, Spartacus, streaming video
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, video, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
 Speakers headed to the 6th Annual Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29=March 1 Early, discounted regsitrations for the Southeast Venture Conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1 end Friday, Jan. 20. This year the SEVC features Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, Chuck Templeton, founder of OpenTable, Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, top venture capital firms and innovative tech startups.
Randolph is a leading Silicon Valley investor in addition to being co-founder and former CEO of Netflix. Randolph and Templeton are just two of the hundreds of leading venture investors and entrepreneurs headed to this year’s event.
VCS representing $50B in capital attending
Venture capital firms at the event represent $50 billion in investment money.
The 6th Annual Southeast Venture Conference also features presentations from more than 60 of the hottest Southeast and Mid-Atlantic high growth tech companies. Companies that presented at the 2011 SEVC had average revenues of $6 million.
Also on the agenda: Paul Lee, partner, Lightbank, Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com, Jalak Jobanputra, venture investor, New Venture Partners, Harry Weller, general partner, NEA, Sean Marsh, co-founder, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Toronto Stock Exchange, and Roland Reynolds, managing director, Industry Ventures.
New this year
New this year is a pre-event networking platform, which will allow attendees to connect ahead of the event, increasing the opportunities to make it even more productive.
The Southeast Venture Conference is the premiere venture forum in the region and has sold out every year. Register here.
Tags: 2012, Ali Byrd, Bloomberg, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, Chuck Templeton, Edison Ventures, Eric Bleeker, Harry Weller, Howstuffworks, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Jalak Jobanputra, Karin Klein, Lenard Marcus, Lightbank, Luke Burns, Marc Randolph, Mark Gorenberg, Mark Heesen, Marshall Brain, NEA, New Venture Partners, OpenTable, Paul Lee, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Roland Reynolds, Sean Marsh, SecondMarket, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool
Posted in entrepreneurship, Events, Maryland, Potomac, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Friday, January 6th, 2012
 TechMedia's 2011 Internet Summit event kept people connected via LinkedIn, Twitter and the TechJournal. Our next event is the Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March1. Social media and mobile are rapidly changing business events, says Certain Inc., which sells cloud-based event management software.
We’ve certainly noticed the added-value that both mobile and social media bring to TechMedia’s digital conferences and other events.
Just following the Twitter stream at events often provides top take-away information and insights, while LinkedIn keeps attendees connected before and after the conferences.
Based on insight from visionary industry leaders, customers and partners, Certain has identified key shifts that it believes will shape the industry over the next 12 months.
“2012 will kick off a breakthrough for the industry that will revolutionize the value that attendees, meeting professionals and executive sponsors derive from events,” said Peter Micciche, CEO of Certain.
A tsunami of connectedness
“A tsunami of connectedness, driven by social, mobile and virtual, will ultimately enable the attendee engagement experience. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitterare mainstream, making integrated event marketing the new normal for event professionals.
“This integration of digital solutions with event planning software will result in 2012 as the ‘year of the platform.’ Software-as-a-Service solutions are now seamlessly woven together into a comprehensive ecosystem architecture designed to meet, track and measure planner, marketer, sponsor and attendee needs.”
Certain’s top three predictions for 2012 are:
1. Traditional event planning will be massively disrupted by the widespread adoption of social media and mobile.
Social media and mobile will become core components of events — with or without the sanction of the organizers. This will create new and exciting opportunities for agile organizations that can adopt these technologies to create high-performance event interactions that lead to increased revenues and market share.
The industry will evolve quickly from simple and personal experience usage of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to the more strategic ability to support “continuing the conversations” post-event and year round. Because of the increase in popularity of social media and mobile devices, planners will need to focus on harnessing the attention of attendees by finding ways to leverage thesemarketing tools.
Social media disrupting tradtional speaker formats
Social media will also disrupt the traditional format of speaker presentations. Instead of pushing information and talking “at” participants, speakers will find new methods of creating conversations with and amongst attendees long before the live session begins, and facilitating and supporting two-way, real-time interaction and evaluation after the event closes.
In 2012, speakers and planners who do not embrace social media as a means to fully engage and support all participants risk the potential of attendees dominating the buzz around their events, and miss an excellent opportunity to gain real-time feedback and to deepen their understanding of participant needs.
2. 2012 will be the “year of the platform”
Single use mobile and virtual applications are short-lived. Over the next year, leading enterprise software vendors will introduce new platform-as-a-service offerings.
Event planners will discover that in order to meet industry demands, technology must be integrated into a holistic, consolidated approach that is best expressed through a single event management platform covering logistics and digital solutions for all aspects of the event ecosystem. This framework best suits the growing demands for all event participants via a one-stop digital shop from which they can access event details and engage and connect with other participants via social media, mobile, and virtual.
Single purpose mobile and virtual applications will get acquired or become obsolete as leading vendors raise the bar for platform application integration. The industry will witness a natural evolution of products and only those companies that best adapt to the advancing technology landscape will emerge as the fittest.
3. All roads lead to 1:1 business activity
1:1 meetings will become the norm for events and tradeshows. The year 2012 will overwhelmingly point to the importance of productivity derived from facilitating one-to-one, quality relationships at events. Attendees will increasingly leverage technology to network and build business relationships, maximizing the Return on Investment (ROI) from the eventsthey attend.
Opportunities for networking and relationship building will become key determinants in the value of a particular event, and mobile technology will play an integral part in fostering those connections. Event organizers can best meet the demand for rich 1:1 participant experiences by providing strategic, matched appointments and a platform for communication between attendees before, during and after events.
Next-generation appointment matching solutions, tightly integrated with SaaS event planning and CRM platforms, will leverage social media capabilities and mobile to connect individuals based on their interests resulting in the optimal value from face-to-face meetings.
For more information about and opinions from Certain, visit the Certain Blog at: http://blog.certain.com/.
Tags: Certain Inc., event planning, Internet Summit, LinkedIn, social media and mobile changing event planning, Southeast Venture Conference, twitter
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Mobile, smartphones, social media, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications, Twitter, Virginia | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
 The U.S. high-tech industry lost 115,800 net jobs in 2010, for a total of 5.75 million workers. This two percent decline in tech industry employment was less than half of the 249,500 jobs lost in 2009, which followed several years of sustained growth, according to the TechAmerica Foundation’s 14th annual Cyberstates report.
Over the longer term of 2007 to 2010 – the span of the economic downturn – the tech industry fared better than the private sector as a whole, with a four percent decline in employment versus a seven percent decline in the private sector.
“Of the four high-tech sectors highlighted in our report, only software services added jobs in 2010 – 22,800, a one percent gain,” said Robert F. Bennett, chairman of TechAmerica Foundation. “Of the jobs lost, 72,100 were in communications services, 53,600 were in tech manufacturing, and 12,900 were in engineering and tech services. Fortunately, the initial numbers for 2011 look more promising in terms of job growth.”
Job growth occurred in all four tech industry sectors
TechAmerica Foundation also today released a midyear jobs report for 2011 based on a different monthly data set from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This report shows that between January and June 2011, the tech industry added a net 115,000 jobs, a two percent gain, not adjusted for seasonality.
During this time period, job growth occurred in all four technology industry sectors, with the fastest growth in engineering and tech services. A 12 month review of June 2010 in comparison with June 2011 also shows growth in three of the four tech industry sectors, with job losses occurring in communication services.
“Tech jobs were down in 2010, trending with the rest of the economy, but we have fared better than the private sector as a whole over the course of the economic downturn and there are some positive signs for 2011, said Dan Varroney, acting President and CEO of TechAmerica. “We are poised not only to grow our own industry but to support the growth of the economy as a whole. The key to growth is to support what we call the Four T’s: technology, talent, tax, and trade.”
“Technology: We need robust federal investment in basic research to create the scientific base that companies can use to produce new products and innovations.
“Talent: We need to invest in STEM education to provide our children with the foundation in math and science that will prepare them for high paying careers while allowing highly skilled foreign nationals educated at our universities to remain in the United States and join American companies instead of returning to their home countries and competing against us.”
Tax system needs reform
“Tax: We need to reform our tax system to make capital welcome. We are competing against countries that are aggressively implementing tax policies that lower the cost of business. We need comprehensive tax reform that attracts investments in technology and creates a framework that encourages repatriation of profits made by foreign operations of U.S.-based corporations.
“Trade: We need to open new markets to U.S. products and services by finishing the pending Free Trade Agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea and continue to pursue other opportunities to expand trade.”
Eight states added tech jobs in 2010
The state-by-state data reveal that eight states added tech jobs in 2010. The largest gains occurred in Michigan (+2,700), the District of Columbia (+1,400), West Virginia (+400), Utah (+400), and South Carolina (+300). On a percentage basis, the District of Columbia saw the fastest job growth in 2010 at 4.3 percent, albeit at a small base.
For the sixth straight year, Virginia led the nation with the highest concentration of tech workers – 98 of every 1,000 private sector workers in the state were employed in the tech industry. Massachusetts and Colorado ranked second and third, respectively.
Cyberstates 2011 relies on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report provides 2010 national and state-by-state data on high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, wage differential, and employment concentration. All data are the most recent available at the time of publication.
Cyberstates 2011 may be purchased for $150. The 2011 midyear report may be freely downloaded. Both reports can be accessed at: www.techamericafoundation.org/cyberstates.
Tags: CO, DC, M&A, SC, Tech America Cyberstates reports, Tech America Foundation, Utah, VA, W.VA, which states added tech jobs in 2010?
Posted in IT, Maryland, Studies, surveys, reports, TechJobs, Virginia, Washington, DC, West Virginia | Comments Off
Monday, September 26th, 2011
 Traditional job searching, interviewing and hiring is a backwards process that is undergoing a transformation, a certainty that will be demonstrated at the Digital East 2011 conference September 28-29 at the Sheraton Premiere Tysons Corner hotel. It is one of a dozen innovative firms to demonstrate new tech at the conference, which includes dozens of top digital media experts offering the latest tips, techniques and best practices at the event Wednesday and Thursday.
JobOn co-founder and CEO Jody Presti will show how his company’s technology is changing the way that retailers, restaurants and food service companies hire hourly employment.
One of a dozen DEMO firms
JobOn is one of only a dozen selected to present at the conference’s DEMO Showcase, which will be heard by 800-plus attendees including interactive marketers, senior Internet executives, online strategists, web entrepreneurs, bloggers, designers, usability experts and other new media professionals. (See links below for interviews with participants on SEO, Killer Facebook ads, phone apps for low income groups, web analytics tricks, deploying company video successfully, and creating excitement around a brand.)
JobOn combines employment listings with the ability for applicants to submit a recorded video interview. They answer a few common interview questions via a webcam or smart phone, and then click to send the responses to employers with jobs to fill.
For job seekers, this saves the time and cost of going to each employer to fill out a paper application and then scheduling an interview. At the same time, for less than the cost of a classified ad, employers get to pre-screen applicants before calling them for a second, face-to-face interview. JobOn hosts the videos, which are free for job seekers.
Says Presti, “Employers know within a few seconds if someone is a good fit, so we put the interview first to prevent employers from wasting time on paper applications and inappropriate interviews.”
The market for this technology is significant: there are 80 million employees and nine million workplaces that hire for retail, restaurant and other food services. Turnover ranges from 70 to 200 percent each year, which often leads managers to make “panic hires” that don’t last.
For a look at what some of the other digital media experts will be discussing at Digital East see:
Are you missing these web analytics tricks?
The right marketing mix creates search demand
Want to monetize social media? Hook users on achievement
Should app developers put more focus on low income groups?
Get the most from deploying video in a company
Four tips on search engine optimization from AOL’s SEO director
Killer Facebook ads: target more than the bullseye
Create a halo effect of excitement around your brand
Tags: AOL SEO director, app development for lower income groups, deploy company video successfully, Digital East conference, Digital East DEMO showcase, four tips on SEO optimization, Jobson, Jody Presti, Killer Facebook ads target more than the bullseye, Potomac region, tech jobs, thinkgeek.com, Tysons Corner, VA, web analytics tactics
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, Maryland, Potomac, TechJobs, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 Ted McDonald - Web Analyst, Verisign One of the things Ted McDonald, Web Analyst for Verisign noticed at both his current and his last position, was the amount of junk traffic cluttering up reports with misinformation.
McDonald, who managed the web analytics program at Carfax before joining Verisign and managed web analytics at National Geograpic before that, will be discussing a few unusual tricks of the web analytics trade at the Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, next Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 28-29).
He is an expert at using Omniture products, like Discover and TestandTarget, and assessing the ROI of SEM and social media marketing efforts McDonald will be joined by dozens of experts, executives, and entrepreneurs in digital media, e-commerce, and the web world at the event.
Traffic that mucks up your data
One of the things he’ll discuss is how to detect that junk traffic and what to do about it.
At Verisign, he says, he has to deal with “A large number of people trying to hack us.” Seeing a lot of Eastern European traffic might be one clue that is happening, he notes.
Another problem he deals with is that of registrars hitting the site dozens of times a day. So to solve that and filter other traffic that isn’t relevant to the company’s consumer report, he looks at IP addresses and domain names.
He has triggers set up in the company’s web analytics program, Omniture, to alert him if a certain IP address is looking at the site’s Whois information a number of times a day and so on.
An allied problem to be on the watch for, says McDonald, is that for some reason, a number of site cruising bots – whatever they are – start visits on a site’s order confirmation page. That can seriously distort results if hits to the confirmation page are being used to count transactions. “It mucks up your data,” McDonald says.How
How many visits result in a transaction?
We asked if there are any metrics people should be looking at they might not be aware of. Mostly not, he says, but added, “There is one metric I like to look at that most analysts don’t: the impact of your pageviews on transactions. What you don’t know from a lot of standard reports – the top pages report, bounce rate, all of that – is of how many of the say 1,000 visits to a page resulted in a transaction five or six steps down?”
That is information that’s not readily apparent and “It’s something I look at that most folks don’t even know is an option,” he says.
McDonald says he’ll elaborate on these topics and others at the conference next week.
Tags: Carfax, counting web transactions, Digital East, Ted McDonald, Tysons Corner, VA, Verisign, web analytics, web filters
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Potomac, Virginia, Washington, DC | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
 Rogelio (Ro) Choy - COO, Formspring By Allan Maurer
A few years ago, the idea of paying for virtual goods online with real currency seemed outlandish to some. “It blew people’s minds,” says Rogelio (Ro) Choy, COO of the question & answer social site Formspring. But game companies such as Zynga, creator of Farmville, among other popular Facebook games, are successfully using that model.
Choy is one of dozens of Internet mavens, social media experts, marketing gurus, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs participating in the upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
He’ll be discussing how to monetize social media efforts. He’ll address display advertising, brand advertising, performance advertising, social currency, mobile advertising and virtual currency. He’ll discuss each in some detail based on what he’s learned in a career packed with social media experience.
Choy was previously the CEO of Peerpong, a Q&A service using NLP/semantics for identifying interests and knowledge from social streams. Prior to Peerpong, Ro was Chief Revenue Officer for RockYou and responsible for leading all the business efforts for the company and Director at eBay Motors, leading the online parts business. Prior to eBay, Ro co-founded Cima Systems, a leading VOIP software provider for auto dealers.
Advisor on social media
Choy serves as an advisor to a number of social media focused startups including Applifer, Nanigans, Wildfire Interactive, Project Slice, Adnectar, 500 Friends, Guestmob, Facepad, Replybuy, J2Play, GamesthatGive and Groupcard.
We asked Choy to elaborate on using virtual currency to monetize social media.
“It’s a completely different way of imagining how people can make money on the web,” Choy says. It works because making social media platforms such as Facebook an intrinsic part of the game dramatically reduces the cost of acquiring customers.
In 2011, according to eMarketer, Choy notes, “27 percent of all Internet users were social gamers of some sort and 42 percent of all social networkers play games. In all 62 million people are playing social games of some sort. So a lot of people are playing games in a social network and buying certain types of virtual products.
Those virtual products are consumables tied to achievement in the games, not permanent objects, usually, Choy says.
Hooking people on achievement
“It’s the concept of hooking people on achievement within the broader concept of gamification. You get people used to making short goals,” Choy says. Then you present them with a longer, more difficult goal they may wish to attain, but they may lack the time to complete and want to speed up the process. “That’s where you monetize.Once they’re hooked on achievement, then you charge.”
The concept can be applied to anything, content, e-commerce, any experience that’s social in nature and involves friends, Choy adds. “Where people want to surpass time or material constraints, that’s where you monetize. Build achievement into how you think about offering your products or services on social media platforms.”
Choy says there are compelling opportunities in brand and performance advertising, social commerce and mobile marketing as well. Social commerce, for instance, “Is probably the least developed, but potentially the most compelling,” he says. We could tell from our interview that you’ll be hearing practical ideas that will get the gears of your mind cranking.
Tags: Allan Maurer, Cima Systems, Digital East, eBay Motors, Farmville, Formspring, hooked on achievement, monetizing social media, Peerpong, Ro Choy, RockYou, social commerce, social games, Tysons Corner, VA, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, games, Internet/New Media, IT, Mafia Wars, Marketing, Maryland, Mobile, Potomac, social media, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Friday, August 26th, 2011
 Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast, Time Warner Cable is taking steps to prepare for the impact of the storm. Time Warner Cable has more than 5.9 million residential and business customers from the Carolinas to New England.
Time Warner Cable has Business Recovery Unit trailers in place in key locations along the East Coast so restoration efforts can begin as soon as it is safe to enter potentially impacted areas. The trailers hold everything from fiber, generators and chainsaws to emergency supplies for crews, such as tents, flashlights and water.
“By positioning equipment in strategic areas before the storm, Time Warner Cable is able to quickly respond to those communities that sustain the most damage,” says Mike Munley, president of residential services, Time Warner Cable East. “We know our residential and business customers rely on our digital phone, Internet and cable services to stay connected to information and each other, particularly during severe weather and we are committed to getting customers back on line as soon as it is safe to do so.”
With more than 17,000 employees throughout the East, Time Warner Cable takes the following proactive measures to ensure that we are ready to help customers in the event of severe weather:
• Technicians have extra equipment and fuel on hand
• Generators have been tested and backup power equipment is prepared for deployment
• Additional technicians, maintenance, construction and customer service representatives are scheduled around the clock
• Call center employees up and down the East Coast are ready to answer customer calls, online chat and Tweets from impacted areas
• Work-from-home representatives will take customer calls from their living rooms
• Technicians across the East can be quickly mobilized to provide support to the impacted areas that need the most help. In addition, Time Warner Cable can call in employees from other states to help if needed.
Time Warner Cable’s 24/7 robust automated phone system tells customers if we know about an outage in their area. If the customer hears information about the outage, customers don’t need to take any action. If they don’t hear about the outage impacting their neighborhood, they can report it by telling the system their services are out. They can also follow the steps to talk to a customer service representative. The number for residential customers to call is 1-866-4-TWCNOW.
In addition, outage information is available at www.yourtwc.com/storm. You can also follow the latest developments on Twitter, @TWCCarolinas.
For customers of Time Warner Cable Business Class, the 24/7 support team is available to assist by calling 1-877-892-2220.
Tags: contact Time Warner Cable on Hurricane outage, Hurricane prepartions for business, Irene bears down on East Coast, TWC prepares for Hurricane Irene
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, Maryland, North Carolina, Potomac, Telecommunications, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Monday, August 8th, 2011
 HERNDON, VA – ePals, which has developed an online learning network, has raised $47.2 million in new funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC filing says the round attracted more than 100 investors.
Principals listed in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission include Phil Bronner of Novak Biddle Partners, Jean Case, Mitchell Kapor, and Miles Gilburne.
The company merged with In2Books in January 2007 to create what is says is the “world’s largest K-12 e-learning network.”
It offers primary and secondary schools, teachers, students and parents worldwide a safe and secure platform for building educational communities, providing quality digital content and facilitating collaboration for effective 21st century learning. ePals is used by more than 600,000 educators and reaches more than 25 million students and parents in 200 counties and territories.
The company’s Web site lists the following investors:
Miles Gilburne and Nina Zolt; Steve and Jean Case; Mitchell Kapor, Founder, Lotus; chair, Mozilla Foundation; chair, Second Life; National Geographic Ventures; Microsoft Corporation; Ted Leonsis; Yossi Vardi, Int’l Technologies Ventures; fomer chairman, ICQ; John Kao, Fellow, Royal Society of Arts; entrepreneur; author, Innovation Nation & Jamming; Nancy Peretsman, EVP, managing director, Allen & Co. Jesselson Capital; Sandy Lange, Partner, Hilan Capital; former chairman & CEO Pictorial William Raduchel, Former CTO, Time Warner; CSO, Sun Microsystems; Steve Arnold. Lucas Foundation.
That’s a formidable list of venture capitalists to have backing your company. Many of these folks, including Steve and Jean Case, Miles Gilburne, and Ted Leonsis, for instance, tend to invest in projects together.
Tags: ePals, financing, Herndon, Hilan Capital, Int’l Technologies Ventures, Jesselson Capital, Lucas Foundation, Miles Gilburne, Mitchell Kapor, National Geographic Ventures, online learning network, Steve and Jean Case, Sun Microsystems, Ted Leonsis; Yossi Vardi, Time Warner, VA
Posted in Education, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, Potomac, Virginia | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
 Tracking downloads by 4 millions users across the country from January through June 2011, a Pando Networks’ study revealed that some states are averaging connectivity speeds as much as ten times faster than those in other cities (see interactive maps at bottom).
The most striking findings were the core differences between the average speeds on a state-by-state basis. The data indicates that the fastest state was Rhode Island at an average of 894 KBps, which was almost three times faster than the slowest, Idaho, which had a dismal 318KBps. Rhode Island and Idaho may stand out as the extremities, but the disparities they highlight reflect more expansive, regional trends. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region contained eight of the ten fastest states.
With California, Oregon, and Washington in the top 15, the West coast was also a remarkably a speedy region. On the other hand, the rural Midwest and Mountain-West states of which Idaho is a member comprise nine of the ten slowest states. Middle America’s slow connectivity could be representative of its more widespread populations and a lower demand for high-speed data infrastructure.
Generally, the slower downloading, rural states were also the least likely to complete a download once begun, with some notable exceptions. Users in Hawaii, dealing with a fairly sluggish average of 432KBps, still managed to complete 87% of their downloads. Colorado residents averaged a relatively slow 474KBps, but managed to complete 86% of their downloads.
Bucking the trend in the opposite direction, the District of Columbia enjoys an average of 759KBps but only completes 80% of downloads. Such findings suggest high-speed internet users may not necessarily hold the most stable connections (or be the most patient internet users). Culver City, CA, the headquarters of Pando Networks client Riot Games, had the highest average completion rate at 98%.
More interesting findings are visible when the data is broken down to the city level. The fastest download averages tend to be concentrated in fairly affluent, metropolitan suburbs. Topping the list is Andover, a suburb of Boston with a median income of $114,000 and average download speeds of 2,801KBps.
Other notable, high-average suburbs include Burke, VA (an average of 1,674 KBps) outside of DC and Santa Monica, CA outside of Los Angeles (1,428KBps, with an average completion rate of 96%).
Keeping with the statewide trends, the slowest downloading towns tend to be in rural areas with low incomes. Taking the bottom spot is Pocatello, a small community in Idaho with a median income of $34,000. Other notably slow communities include Yuma, AZ (290KBps) in the Mojave desert and Mission, TX (270KBps) near the Mexican border.
Also notable are the wide margins between the various major ISPs. Excluding business and private networks, the data puts Comcast Cable at the top spot, averaging download speeds of 890KBps. Other notables near the top of the list included Verizon (788KBps) and Cox (757KBps). At 673KBps, Road Runner was the slowest of the major broadband providers.
Such wide gaps also exist amongst the providers of wireless 3G and 4G data plans. Topping the list are AT&T with an average of 416KBps and Sprint with a respectable 391KBps. T-Mobile turned in an average of 364KBps, Verizon Wireless had an average of 216KBps and ALLTEL was the slowest with an average of 155KBps.
More specific city and ISP-related data can be requested from pando@triplepointpr.com.
Average Completion Rate by State (%)
Average Download Speed By State (Kilobytes Per Second)
Tags: CA, Culver City, DC, Hawaii, Idaho, Mid-Atlantic region, Northeast, Oregon, Rhode Island, State Internet connection speeds, Washington, wireless speeds
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, Potomac, Studies, surveys, reports, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
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