Bay Area tops in broadband use Region is tops in U.S. high-speed Internet access, but experts worry it still lags the rest of the world

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Anne Barry presides over a power broadband household. The kids download videos and do school research, while she e-mails and shops and her husband connects to work remotely.

"My husband works in tech, we live in Palo Alto, we have three children and we're completely wired," Barry said.

It's families like the Barrys that have helped the Bay Area boast the highest penetration of broadband Internet access in the country.

The region topped the charts in 2007, with 62 percent of households connected to high-speed Internet access, according to a report released Tuesday by Scarborough Research. The Bay Area bested San Diego and Boston, which held the top spots in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

The Bay Area has been at or near the top of Scarborough's broadband surveys for the last five years. Gary Meo, senior vice president of digital and print media services at Scarborough, said the Bay Area scores high because of its wealth and education resources, which correspond to broadband usage.

"The Bay Area, being the center of Internet activity in the U.S. with Silicon Valley, ranks high in all the demographic indicators, particularly education and affluence," Meo said.

The results echo similar findings from the Bay Area Council, which said Monday that the region is tops in broadband adoption. Both studies also reflect a growing use nationwide of broadband. Now, 49 percent of households in America are connected through broadband, an increase of more than 300 percent over 2002, when 12 percent of adults reported subscribing to high speed access, said Meo.

"Clearly people are using the Internet more and more and are interested in more speed to access the sophisticated interactive aspects of the Web," Meo said. "This is a trend that is marching forward in a big way."

Local observers said it's premature for the Bay Area to trumpet its accomplishments, saying the United States is still behind other countries in terms of broadband adoption. In the latest survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, the United States fell two spots to 15th in broadband use, behind Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and South Korea.

"We don't need to be worried about other American cities, we need to be worried about other parts of the world," said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley Networks, a nonprofit group that brings business and governments together. "We're no longer a regional economy. It's global now."

Chris Libertelli, director of government and regulatory affairs for Skype, an Internet phone service, said the country needs to boost broadband access and speeds to make sure that the United States doesn't get left behind in the digital age.

"The faster the broadband, the more available it is, the faster it is to create the next platform for innovation," Libertelli said. "The engine of the Silicon Valley economy is the creation of new software that rides on faster and faster broadband."

Sally Cohen, an analyst with Forrester Research, said a slowdown in broadband proliferation has longer-term consequences for students and employees who don't have access to faster networks.

"In terms of companies or even small businesses, it's about access to information, efficiency and productivity," Cohen said. "The faster the speeds, it makes employees more productive."