Study: West Coast leads wired cities

From...

by Genia Jones

(IDG) -- San Francisco and Silicon Valley are well-known as meccas for Net business, and a new study shows consumers in the two regions are equally wired.

At least half of the homes in 21 of the top 35 U.S. cities and surrounding areas had online access in September, according to Nielsen NetRatings (NTRT). The findings represent a significant jump over the past six months: In March, only six urban areas could claim that half of their homes were wired.

The results suggest that the advent of low-cost computers and other Internet-access devices, as well as the increasingly mainstream acceptance of the Web, are having a positive effect on the growth of Web access in major cities, according to NetRatings.

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Two-thirds of homes in San Francisco, Oakland, the Silicon Valley and other nearby areas had Net access in September, easily making it the most-wired region in the country. San Francisco was followed closely by other West Coast cities -- Seattle, San Diego and Portland -- which registered Internet household usage rates of 64 percent, 62 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

Although New York City finished 19th with 50 percent of homes wired, the city had the most significant growth in Net access, gaining 22 percent since March.

Other cities are catching up to the West Coast's lead. Residents of Boston, Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., are quickly becoming wired, with Boston logging 59 percent of homes online, Orlando hitting 56 percent and Atlanta trailing closely at 54 percent.

Several south and southwestern cities -- most notably Houston and Tampa, Fla., -- are getting connected. Houston has seen a 20 percent increase in the number of households with Net access since March, and Tampa registered a 19 percent gain.

The Nielsen NetRatings study monitored the online usage of a panel of 65,000 participants in the U.S., including 57,000 surfers at home and 8,000 surfers at work.

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