JERSEY CITY, N.J.—As operators race to rollout more fiber into their networks and ever faster gigabit networks, consumers continue to increase their data consumption. A new OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report finds that monthly average data usage was 533.8 GB in Q1 2023, up 8.8% year over year from 490.7 GB in 1Q22.
The study also found significant activity by heavy broadband users, with heavy users hitting new records of data consumption. In addition, the percentage of subscribers on gigabit speed tiers more than doubled over the previous year, reaching 31.6% in 2Q 2023.
In a first-of-its-kind breakdown of broadband usage by application category, the OVBI report notes that power users stream more than 2.2 TB of data per month, nearly six times as much as average users. Furthermore, power users’ gaming consumption of 498 GB per month was 2,271% higher than average users’ 21 GB per month. OVBI defines an average user as one who consumes 400-600 GB per month.
“As subscribers flock to faster and faster speed tiers, there is increasing pressure on operator networks to deliver uninterrupted and unimpaired user experiences,” said Mark Trudeau, CEO and founder of OpenVault. “With deeper visibility into the applications that subscribers are using, operators can proactively understand and strengthen the most vulnerable areas in their networks.”
In addition to the stark streaming and gaming differences between power and average users, the OVBI report also noted that average users dedicate a significantly greater portion of their bandwidth – 20% – to social media, well ahead of both power users (9%) and light users (6%). Light users of less than 100 GB per month expend 92% of their consumption on streaming and less than 1% on gaming. As always, the report leverages data aggregated from OpenVault’s suite of broadband management tools.
As part of its continued analysis of usage by participants in the Affordable Connectivity Plan, OVBI also found a notable difference between fully-subsidized subscribers who pay the entirety of their monthly bill with the plan’s $30 allowance, and partially subsidized subscribers who use the $30 allowance to defray part of the cost of higher-priced plans with faster speeds.
OVBI found that partially subsidized participants consumed 40.6% more data than non-ACP subscribers, while fully subsidized participants who receive slower speed tiers (50-75Mbps) consumed just 18.2% more data.
OpenVault will host a webinar to elaborate on the report on Thursday, July 26 at 11 a.m. EST. Registration is here.
The entire report is at https://openvault.com/resources/ovbi/. OpenVault also provides continuously updated broadband consumption figures in OpenVault’s Broadband Tracker.
The company's broadband tracker is currently projecting that average broadband data usage will be more than 583 GB for July of 2023.
