Broadband
TT Correspondent | 10 Sep 2013The latest web-based ISPreview.co.uk survey of 1,241 internet users in the United Kingdom has revealed that 52% of respondents claim to consume more than 60GB (GigaBytes) of data over their broadband ISP connections each month, which is up from 38% two years earlier.
The study also found that 67% of respondents spent 4 or more hours online per day.
Elsewhere the number of consumers whom gobbled 5GB or less data per month has fallen from 12% in 2011 to just 6% now. Overall 65% of respondents to ISPreview.co.uk's new study agreed that their internet usage had increased since last year.
By comparison Ofcom's (UK telecoms regulator) 2012 Infrastructure Report found that residential fixed line broadband customers were using an average of 23GB (GigaBytes) of data per month (up by 35% from 17GB in 2011). Meanwhile the average mobile customer used 245 MegaBytes (0.24GB) of data per month, which is twice as much as the year before but still well below what fixed line users consume. Broadly speaking we're all, including some of the least active net surfers, placing more demands on our internet connectivity.
"It's no surprise that we're all consuming more data as the quality of internet content, especially in terms of video streaming, has continued to increase and the way we connect to the internet is only getting faster," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "Similarly most fixed line broadband ISPs have been keeping pace by increasing their usage allowances or adopting 'totally unlimited' services, often with only a tiny adjustment in price to compensate."
"The result is that consumers, many of which might start to feel confused by all the increasingly similar packages, are likely to place even more emphasis on service quality as a differentiator between ISPs. The only exception appears the be mobile operators, many of which are still peddling the same sort of data caps as they had two or three years ago. Even the latest 4G technology, which is predominantly about delivering faster connectivity, appears to have had little impact and yet consumes now expect a lot more," concluded Mark Jackson.