The Average Gigabytes Used on Mobile Phone Data Packages

These days, mostly everyone uses a smartphone for their mobile phone. Unlike when you own a so-called “dumb” phone, when you have a smartphone, you will find that your wireless carrier will require you to purchase a data plan or upgrade your existing one, depending on how old it is. In particular, the four major wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless — offer unlimited data plans as part of their packages. More mobile phone users are now transitioning to providers like Clear that provide wireless internet deals with unlimited data plans for on- the- go and home solutions.

While many consumers opt for these data plans, the majority of these individuals never consume more than 2GB of data per month. This is a fairly standard amount as it is the average tier for most smartphone data plans across all of the wireless carriers.

According to a study conducted by research firm NPD Connected Intelligence, the majority of mobile phone users do not need unlimited plans, and in fact, 2GB is more than sufficient to satisfy these individuals. The NPD also collected data from an app on 1,000 Android smartphones to track how much data the owners would consume each month. This is not taking into consideration the usage of iPhone users, but the firm determined that three percent of consumers on Verizon Wireless consume more than 3GB per month, 4 percent of users on Sprint and AT&T consume over 3GB per month and as much as 11 percent of T-Mobile users consume more than 3GB each month. It was also determined that T-Mobile customers tend to be of the younger demographic, which means there is more streaming of music and video to smartphones among this group.

Generally, on the whole, the majority of customers on wireless carriers who have a data plan tied to their mobile phone are not even at the 2GB point. As of the first quarter of 2012, the average data usage for these individuals measured in at approximately 450MB of data per month. It is not surprising that wireless data usage is considerably low due to the fact that all smartphones now come with Wi-Fi capabilities built in. Shared data is also a popular option that is offered by the two top carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which help consumers to limit their data usage overall.

Reference: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/unlimited-unnecessary-npd-report-finds-average-smartphone-data-use-below-2/2012-08-24

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