JERSEY CITY, N.J.—New data from Open Vault highlights how broadband users continue to increase their data usage, with the latest edition of the OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report showing that average monthly data consumption is now approaching 700 GB per month and that nearly a quarter of all high speed internet subs are consuming 1 TB or more per month.
According to the report, the percentage of these so-called "Power Users" rose to almost one-quarter of all subscribers – 24.3% – in Q4 2024, a 232% increase over the 7.3% reported at the end of the last pre-pandemic report, in 2019. The surge in high-volume users, together with continued growth in the upstream growth rate and consistent incremental downstream increases, boosted average monthly total consumption nearing 700 GB.
The report’s analysis of data collected by OpenVault’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology solutions also shows how historic correlations between broadband speeds and consumption have continued to transform the broadband environment.
“Significant shifts in broadband usage patterns continue to reshape the landscape of network performance and subscriber experience,” the report notes. “While average data consumption reached a new milestone, the rate of upstream data growth outpaced the rate of downstream growth, reflecting broader changes in user behavior. As subscribers upgrade to faster speeds at a slower pace, the focus is moving away from speed improvements and toward maintaining optimal network health, performance, and Quality of Experience (QoE).”
Key findings of the report include:
- Record average monthly total consumption of 698.2 GB;
- A continued rise in upstream growth, reaching 14.6%;
- Consumption by individual Extreme Power Users of as much as 53x more downstream and 123x more upstream than the average subscriber.
Traditionally a benchmark of broadband activity over the previous year, the Q4 OVBI also highlights some other notable trends, including Christmas Day when video conferencing with friends and family, holiday movie streaming, the unboxing of new online games, and the addition of new connected devices drives usage to new heights.
The report found that Christmas Day usage, consistently high from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m., was 24% higher than on Christmas Day Q4 2022 and 58% higher than in Q4 2020.
While the 14.6% rate of upstream growth represented continued upward acceleration, downstream growth rate of 8.6% was marginally less than in Q4 2023, continuing a declining rate of increase.
The subscriber with the highest downstream data usage consumed 34 TB in Q4 2024—53x the average downstream usage of 652.3 GB per subscriber. The top individual upstream usage was 5.5 TB, a staggering 123x the average upstream usage of 45.9 GB in Q4 2024, the data also showed.
To address the need for higher performance, the broadband industry is developing and deploying new solutions that can optimize profiles and create more available bandwidth. The 4Q24 OVBI includes a brief on the deployment of OV Advanced PMA, showing a 27% increase in throughput from 201 Mbps to 255 Mbps. This resulted in sufficient bandwidth to accommodate the high-definition streaming of 10 to 15 Netflix movies.
The entire report is at https://openvault.com/resources/ovbi/.
OpenVault CEO and founder Mark Trudeau will discuss the findings and their implications for the industry on a webinar on Thursday, March 13 at 11 a.m. EST. Registration is available here.
