Jersey City, NJ; February 8, 2024 – Broadband consumption is on track to approach or surpass 700 GB per month by the end of this year and a Terabyte within the next five years, according to the latest edition of the OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report. The report was issued today by OpenVault, a market-leading source of SaaS-based revenue and network improvement solutions and data-driven insights for the broadband industry.
Average monthly broadband usage surged above 600 GB for the first time in 2023, ending the year at 641 GB per month and extending a multi-year trend of 9%+ annual increases in consumption. In its 4Q 2023 edition, OVBI projects that continued growth at the same pace would push the average per subscriber amount of data consumed past the 1 TB per month mark by the end of 2028.
The 4Q23 report also observed the continued rapid growth of high-volume users. The percentages of power users of 1 TB or more and of super power users of 2 TB or more have soared 437% and 1,235%, respectively, since 2018, while a newly identified category of extreme power users of 5 TB or more has risen by 71% in the last year alone. In addition, commercial customers are contributing to significant growth in upstream traffic, which has risen by 158.48% since 2018.
“The combined impact of these growth factors is amplifying the need for increased operator focus on network performance and Quality of Experience (QoE), especially as operators deploy DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 4.0 technologies,” the report notes. “Studies show that slow or inconsistent internet speed and repeated connection issues erode customer satisfaction and loyalty more than any other factor.”
Key findings in the 4Q23 report include:
- The monthly average data usage was 641 GB, up 9.3% year over year from 586.7 GB at the end of 2022 and up 16.5% from the 550.2 GB in 3Q23.
- The 71% rise in extreme power users of 5 TB or more was just part of the meteoric growth across all power user categories: power users of 1 TB or more per month now account for more than one-fifth of all subscribers, at 21.6%; while the percentage of super power users grew 37% to 4.7%.
- Nearly 40% of all users provisioned for gigabit speeds are power users.
- Commercial subscribers’ 68 GB of monthly upstream usage is 74% higher than the 39 GB used monthly by residential subscribers.
OpenVault Chief Product Officer Brady Volpe and CEO and Founder Mark Trudeau will discuss the findings and their implications for the industry on a webinar on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. EST. Registration is at https://xprss.io/zd2gR
The entire report is at https://openvault.com/resources/ovbi/
About OpenVault
OpenVault and OpenVault Europe GmbH are market-leading sources of broadband technology solutions and data-driven insights into worldwide broadband consumption patterns. Using the companies’ cloud-based SaaS or on-premises solutions and tools, service providers can optimize network performance, increase revenue, and improve subscriber satisfaction. OpenVault and OpenVault Europe aggregate and analyze the resulting market data to provide unparalleled granular views of consumer usage that can be used to anticipate residential and business broadband trends.
For more information, please visit openvault.com.
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