Top US broadband cities: San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit, New York, Sacramento

The top market for broadband penetration was San Diego, at 69.6%. Then it's Phoenix (68.4%), Detroit (67%) and New York (66.8%). Sacramento ranked No. 5 on a list of U.S. cities with the highest residential broadband penetration, compiled by Nielsen//Net Ratings, which studies the online market. In August, 64.9% of residents in the Sacramento market with Internet access had broadband connections, according to the survey.San Francisco ranked No. 8 at 63%, and Los Angeles was ninth at 61.6%.

Of the major cities covered by the survey, Columbus, Ohio, had the lowest broadband penetration, at 26.9%. Nielsen//NetRatings' August survey also found that 51% of the American online population, or 64.1 mln Web users, connect to the Internet via broadband, compared to 60.6 mln accessing the Internet through narrowband. Overall growth for broadband connections rose 43% year-over-year, while narrowband dropped 14% annually.