Sonic.net Internet traffic rises 40 percent on Netflix 'Arrested Development' debut

Sonic.net, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based competitive broadband provider, reported that Netflix's (Nasdaq: NFLX) launch of "Arrested Development" last Sunday drove up its Internet usage by 40 percent.

"Typically we see normal or slightly reduced Internet traffic on a holiday weekend, but the surge in broadband use on Sunday and Monday was substantial, an almost 40% bump in overall usage," Sonic.net said in blog post.

The service provider added that strong demand continued on Monday.

But Sonic wasn't the only one that saw a bump in traffic.

According to a blog post from Procera, a provider of Intelligent Policy Enforcement (IPE) solutions to help service providers monitor traffic on their networks, one unnamed cable operator saw Netflix traffic peak volumes of 10 percent on Sunday.

Cam Cullen, vice president of global marketing at Procera, wrote on the company's blog that "one cable network saw a jump in Netflix traffic peak volumes of 10% on Sunday over the previous Sunday, with a corresponding 8% jump in the number of subscribers accessing Netflix overall."

He added that peak "usage for Arrested Development on Netflix on Sunday was twice that traffic seen on Monday, with a range of 2-7% of total Netflix traffic on various networks being directly attributable to Arrested Development."

For more:
- see Sonic.net's blog post
- and Procera's blog post

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