Broadband usage in Europe and the US continued to accelerate at similar paces throughout 2018 and Amazon made substantial year-end inroads into consumers’ device ecosystems.
This is according to OpenVault, a provider of industry analytics and technology solutions for broadband operators.
According to OpenVault, both average and median data usage for 2018 increased when compared with both 2017 statistics. Importantly, the rate of growth for median usage continued to far exceed the growth rate for average usage, indicating that consumption is growing across service providers’ entire subscriber bases, rather than only among heavy users.
OpenVault’s year end 2018 data showed that:
-nAverage Usage is up 33.3% – In Europe, average usage for all households was 168.2GB/HH in 2018, up from 126.2GB/HH at YE 2017, while US average usage in 2018 was 268.7GB/HH vs. 201.6GB/HH at YE 2017.
– Median Usage rises >40% – European media usage was 103.94GB/HH in 2018, as compared to 73.53GB/HH for YE 2017; US median usage was 145.2GB/HH in 2018, vs. 103.6GB/HH at YE 2017.
– Power Users are doubling – The percentage of European power users – defined as those households using 1TB or more – more than doubled, to 0.7% of all subscribers in 2018 from .3% of all subscribers in 2017. In the US, the percentage of power users almost doubled in 2018, rising to 4.12% of all households from 2.11% in 2017.
OpenVault’s 2018 data also shows that average usage for households with flat-rate pricing was 282.1GB/HH, more than 9% higher than the 258.2GB/HH average usage for households on usage-based billing (UBB) plans. The percentage of flat-rate (non-UBB) households exceeding 1TB of usage was 4.82%, a full percentage point higher than the 3.81% of UBB households who exceeded the 1B threshold.
“As connected devices, streaming services and broadband speeds increase, service providers need an alternative to infrastructure upgrades that would enable them to keep up with demand,” said Josh Barstow, EVP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for OpenVault.
“Our analysis makes it clear that usage-based billing is among the most effective tools the industry has in managing consumption and reducing the need for massive capital expenditures.”
In addition to analyzing trends in broadband consumption, OpenVault also tracked expansion within the consumer device landscape in the United States, observing a 5.3% increase in connected devices when comparing the week after Christmas with the week before Christmas. While Amazon, Samsung and Apple collectively accounted for the majority of the growth, the 15.6% rate of increase for Amazon devices was significantly higher than the rates of growth for Samsung (4.1%) and Apple (2.9%).
“Clearly, the substantial increase observed during the holiday season in the number of devices per household contributed to the data consumption usage growth we are seeing,” said Tony Costa, EVP and CTO of OpenVault.
“Although Apple remains the dominant manufacturer in terms of total devices connected per household, Amazon is gaining market share in the race to own the household connected device environment.”
