JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Upgrades in broadband networks and the ongoing growth in streaming services boosted broadband usage and broadband speeds to record levels in Q3, 2022, according to a new analysis by OpenVault.
It found that gigabit tier adoption soared 35% year-over-year from 11.4% in Q3 of 2021 to 15% of all broadband subs in Q3 2022 and that the average U.S. broadband household usage was approaching half a terabyte, gobbling up 495.45 GB of data each month.
The average upload speed in those U.S. households is now 347.8 Mbps, according to the Q3 2022 edition of the OpenVault Broadband Insights report.
The report also noted that the percentage of subscribers on plans between 200-400 Mbps doubled to 54.8% from 27.4% in 3Q21. At the end of the third quarter, only 4.7% of all subscribers were provisioned for speeds of less than 50 Mbps, a reduction of more than 50% from the 3Q21 figure of 9.8%.
Gigabit tier subscribers are up more than 600% since the third quarter of 2019, the report notes. “This trend is impacting bandwidth usage characteristics, with faster growth in power users and median bandwidth usage,” the report added. “Faster speeds are fueling greater consumption that may be reflected in the need for greater capacity in the future.”
The report was issued today by OpenVault, a provider of SaaS-based revenue and network improvement solutions and data-driven insights for the broadband industry.
Other findings in the 3Q22 report include:
- Average monthly usage of 495.5 GB was up 13.9% from 3 Q21’s average of 434.9 GB, and represented a slight increase over 2Q22’s 490.7 GB. Median broadband was up 14.3% year over year, representing broader growth across all subscribers.
- Year-over-year growth of power users of 1 TB or more was 18%, to 13.7% of all subscribers, while the super power user category of consumers of 2 TB or more rose almost 50% during the same time frame.
- Participants in the American Connectivity Program consumed 615.2 GB of data in 3Q22, 24% more than the 495.5 used by the general population.
The entire report is at https://xprss.io/zdgeG. OpenVault also provides continuously updated broadband consumption figures at https://openvault.com/broadbandtracker/.
