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Average Cellphone Data Usage Is 145.8 MB Per Month
destinyland writes "For the first time, the majority of cell phones are accessing data services — 53 percent, compared to only 42 percent last year, according to a new study by Validas. And each user downloads an average of 145.8 MB per month (the average was just 96.8 MB per month in 2009). The heaviest users are Verizon smartphone owners, averaging 428 MB per month (338 MB on average for iPhone users). In fact, Verizon users were twice as likely as iPhone users to exceed both 500 MB and 2 GB each month."
I clicked on the article and couldn't find any mention of standard deviation. Knowing the standard deviation would make statistics like this far more interesting and meaningful.
This survey only covers billed 2G/3G data. As an iPhone owner, I know the data I user per month on AT&T networks has declined recently as AT&T wi-fi hotspots seem to be proliferating everywhere. From Panera to McDonalds, it seems like most lunch spots have free wi-fi, and my home and work certainly does. I don't know how good Verizon's phones are at dealing with wi-fi, or whether they include 802.11b/g/n like the iPhone. In addition, as apps are often more efficient than sites at communicating over the network, some of the reduction is almost certainly due to "there's an app for that" reduction.
In short, I really don't think the MB/month over 2G/3G is necessarily indicative of how much internet is used on a phone anymore.
E pluribus unum
That's on average less then 5MB per day. If I read a few 400 comment threads on slashdot or fark I already have to download that much html. What are these people doing with their phones?
This is not useful data. The average data usage per month for all cell phone users includes (from the article) the 47% of all cell phone users who are not data users at all. This is like trying to find the average upload & download per month for broadband users by finding out the total bandwidth used by broadband subscribers then dividing it by the entire population of Earth.
Now that we've established your level of mathematical competency, could I interest you in a few lottery tickets?
It's the natural result of allowing for an informal cartel to form. Sort of like how around here you can't get DSL that's actually reasonable in terms of latency, bandwidth and price. Since Qwest owns the last mile the investment in that part of the infrastructure seems to be pretty much non-existent requiring them to add 32m for that first hop for error correction. Comcast was even worse last I checked. And while people seem to really like Sonic where it's available, we can't choose them here because they don't have the ability to sell it here.
Likewise, none of the cell phone providers here are particularly great. AT&T being pretty unreliable and seeming to express no interest in upgrading capacity.
I have a droid and have full flash, the rest of the droid folks will have it next week.
I didn't see it listed in the article, but around 43% of Verizon users use data, compared to the 71.2% of at&t users that the article did mention. Even with the wifi network at&t may have the bigger burden due to more users.
I'm in the 500M to 1G camp, and I'm on Verizon. The only reason my data usage is so high is because Verizon offered to give me the "mobile hotspot" feature free for life (a little app on my phone that acts as a gateway and gives me a wireless access point which then routes out to 3G). I use it literally every day, on the train, to connect my netbook to the internet.
Without the mobile hotspot, I would probably use less than 100M per month. And hey, they gave it to me free!
Nemilar http://www.techthrob.com - Visit Me!
I think it probably tells you more about AT&T and tethering (or lack thereof). Of course you CAN tether now, but you have to pay through the nose.
I've had an iPhone 3gs for about a year. The most data I've used in any month has been ~850mb, with an average of around 250-300mb.
Most of the time I'm on a wifi network. Some hotels, my workplaces, home, many restaurants, etc. The 850mb was traveling through several states and using the iPhone heavily for mapping, etc.
I would think I would have trouble using 2gb of data in a month on my iPhone unless I turned off my wifi (which would be stupid to do at home and at work) and like..left yourube videos streaming.
...a lot about the usability of the iPhone OS - obviously it offers something fundamentally different in online experience and usability than the other smartphone environments.
Fundamentally different and inferior compared to other Verizon smartphones, you mean?
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
No, it's the popularity of "V-Cast", Verizon's mobile streaming T services. Verizon and Sprint push a huge quantity of data to their smartphone and featurephone users as plain old TV.
Da Blog
I'm doing my bit to push up the average. I used about 55GB last month on a Sprint 3G smartphone plan and think replacing my DSL with using my phone instead was a great decision. It's only $70-$80 a month for such a nice plan, too.
Brian Fundakowski Feldman
After buying my iPhone, I found a number of "features" on it that pissed me right off. Granted, I should have researched more, but I was on a limited time frame.
In any case, I decided I'm not going to pay a dime to the app store. I'm not sending any more money to Apple.
Because of this, I don't have that many apps on it. I browse the 'net a bit, and use Google Maps quite a bit, but other than that I don't really do much. I could pretty much replace the thing with a $30 phone, a GPS navigation system, and a book to read while I'm waiting on my food at truck stops.
My next phone will be an Android (probably second-hand and unlocked, since I doubt AT&T will start selling them any time soon) and I expect my usage will go up quite a bit.
(For those curious, a small sample of my problems with the phone includes the crippled bluetooth, the requirement for itunes to do anything to the phone, the lack of jailbreak ability (this has since been solved, but wasn't when I got the phone), the lack of flash support, and the insane way you have to go about converting mp3s to ringtones, among other nitpicks. All these are related to how Apple wants to control my use of the phone. The killer was when, shortly after I got the phone and had everything set up on it, my one machine with windows on it crashed, and after I reinstalled it insisted I erase my phone in order to resync it. I'm not a violent man, but I came really close to crushing my phone with my truck when that happened.)
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
I'm shocked by the fact that you're a Slashdot reader that wasn't aware that Apple would try to control your use of your phone.
That said, AT&T carries a number of pretty decent Android phones now. Check out the Captivate for a very nice one.