More than 18% of U.S. broadband users now consume 1 terabyte or more of data each month, according to the latest quarterly report from OpenVault. 

The Hoboken, New Jersey-based broadband analytics software and service provider said that in the first quarter of 2023, 15.6% of the U.S. market achieved this 1 TB benchmark. 

The firm also said that 3.7% of the market uses 2 TB or more data, up year over year from 2.8%.

OpenVault found the fast, steady upward march of data usage kept on expanding in the second quarter, reaching an average consumption of 585.5 GB, up from 533.8 GB in the same period of 2023.

However, usage was down sequentially from 605.8 GB of average consumption in Q1. 

Also notable is the rate of growth for upstream data usage, which is now expanding faster than downstream consumption, OpenVault said.

U.S. broadband consumers are now using more than twice as much data each month than they were right before the pandemic, according to the latest quarterly report from Hoboken, New Jersey-based broadband analytics software and service provider OpenVault.

You can access all of OpenVault’s quarterly reports here. 

From October through December last year, U.S. high-speed-internet subscribers chewed through, on average, 641 gigabytes of the good stuff. Median consumption — a more accurate measurement of the bulk of the market — was 423.7 gigs.

Also read: Percentage of U.S. Homes With Gigabit-Speed Broadband More Than Doubles in 1 Year to 32%, OpenVault Says

Compare that to the fourth quarter of 2019, the last quarter before the COVID pandemic changed usage patterns forever — 344 GB was the average usage and 190.7 GB was the median during that three-month period. 

OpenVault forecasts that average usage will reach 700 GB by the end of 2024 and 1 terabyte by the end of 2028.

Surprisingly (at least to us), data usage growth has accelerated more on the commercial side of the business. Data usage among business subscribers is up 136% in the four years since the pandemic started vs. 86% for residential customers. 

Amid an overall quickening of speed tiers, one-third of American broadband subscribers now take plans rated at 1 gigabit per second or faster on the downstream side. 

Notably, despite accounting for 33% of subscribers, gigabit-speed customers only chew through 9% of data, OpenVault said. 

Finally, on the leading edge of data consumption, the term "power user" once applied to that narrow segment of the market that plowed through 1 terabyte or more of ones and zeroes each month.

Well, now that group accounts for 21.6% of the market, OpenVault says. Two TB a month is now the mark of the true power user. 

Nearly a decade after its introduction, gigabit-speed broadband is a mainstream consumer service, with 32.1% U.S. homes having internet wherewithal of 1 Gbps or greater, according to OpenVault.

The Hoboken, New Jersey-based broadband analytics software and service provider's Q3 2023 "Broadband Insights Report" found that 1-gig subscribers in the U.S. have more than doubled since the company published its quartly report a year ago — 15.4% of users had speeds of 1 Gigabit per second at that time.

In the first quarter of 2023, OpenVault pegged the 1 Gbps subscriber level at 18.1%.

The spike comes as Comcast and Charter Communications have embarked on aggressive DOCSIS 4.0 network upgrades, kicking up the baseline speeds for their legacy DOCSIS 3.1 networks as they go. 

As it finds every quarter, OpenVault determined that data use has once again increased — its up to 555.2 gigabytes per month on a weighted basis across usage- and flat-rate broadband plans vs. 495.5 GB in the third quarter of 2022. 

Meanwhile, the share of U.S. internet subscribers who are “power users” (consume 1 terabyte or more of data each month) and “extreme power users” (use at least 2 terabytes) has increased not explosively but measurably in the last 12 months, OpenVault said.

Compare Q3 2023 to Q3 2022 below:

The percentage of U.S. broadband subscribers who take speeds of 1 gigabit per second or faster has more than doubled over the last year and has tripled over the last two years, according to new quarterly data published by Hoboken, New Jersey-based OpenVault.

The company, which provides consulting and analytics tools for internet service providers, said that 31.6% of U.S. broadband customers had provisioned speeds of 1 Gbps or greater as of the end of the second quarter. 

That figure stood at just 10.5% at the end of June 2021 and 14.2% as of Q2 2022. 

As OpenVault’s reps note, much of this growth has come from operators upgrading speed tiers en masse as they perform major network tech upgrades. For example, last October, Comcast bumped up speeds across five of its tiers, affecting 20 million customers, for free. 

This included users of its Extreme Pro/Gigabit plan, which at the time had a provisioned speed of 940 Mbps but was upgraded into true gigabit-speed status. 

With all this speed, of course, comes ever-increasing consumption and that didn’t change in the second quarter, gobbling an average of 533.8 gigabytes of home internet data a month, up 9% year over year. 

And with the usual overall increase in overall internet consumption comes the continued rise of so-called “power users.” 

In the second quarter, market share for subscribers using 1 terabyte or more of monthly data increased by 14.5% to 15.6% of the market. 

Those “super power users“ consuming 2 TB or more accounted for 2.8% of the overall broadband market, up 26.2%

Belying a widely accepted broadband industry precept, usage-based customers in the U.S. actually consumed more data than flat-rate high-speed broadband subscribers did in the first quarter, according to the latest report published by Hoboken, N.J.-based OpenVault. 

Home internet customers who pay extra for exceeding certain data thresholds consumed, on average, 562.7 gigabytes of data from January - March vs. 555.5 for subscribers who pay one flat rate for unlimited data. 

“Implications for the broadband industry are mixed,” said OpenVault, which provides analytics and tools to the domestic broadband industry. “On the one hand, faster speed adoption often results in higher ARPU for operators and increased satisfaction for consumers as they ‘right-size’ to subscription plans that are aligned with their actual usage. On the other hand, operators who have viewed UBB as a tool to reduce strain on the broadband plant will need to explore new solutions for maintaining and improving network health and alleviating network congestion.”

A key reason for this counterintuitive development: Internet service providers have migrated more of their usage-based customers to higher speeds.

Ninety percent of usage-based customers are on speed tiers of 200 megabits per second or above vs. just 63% for flat-rate billing subscribers.

Less than 20% of U.S. home broadband customers are on speed tiers of under 200 Mbps, OpenVault said, while more than 18% of subscribers now have gigabit-speed internet or faster. 

Meanwhile, 17% of all U.S. broadband users now chew through over 1 terabytes of data a month, while 3% consume more than 2 TB. 

The telecom industry is about to spend a fortune upgrading its broadband networks so that they can deliver crazy-fast, multi-gigabit speeds, symmetrically across downstream and upstream channels.

But nearly five years after Comcast completed its national rollout of 1 gigabit-per-second internet service, only 15.4% of U.S. broadband homes subscribe to even a 1-gig service.

The latest report from OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVI) reveals that gig-speed uptake is accelerating -- 1 Gbps subscribers represented only 11.4% of homes in the third quarter of 2021.

But the vast majority of the market seems to be successfully streaming Netflix, conducting online learning and quitting Twitter using more pedestrian 200 Mbps - 400 Mbps speeds (see OVI chart below).

Is demand for a near-term "10G" future really a thing?

Armed with case studies of future usage paradigms requiring ultra-fast speeds and super-low latency -- think remote surgery -- cable companies and other telecoms insist the massive infrastructure investment remains vitally necessary.

So how much are we talking about?

On Tuesday, Elad Nafshi, executive VP and chief network officer for Comcast Cable, surprised investors at the RBC Capital Markets Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference when he said the "mid-split" required to deliver symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds on Comcast's current DOCSIS 3.1 hybrid-fiber coaxial (HFC) network would cost less than $200 per home passed.

The investment, Nafshi said, is "not all incremental, because in many ways we would need to make that investment for capacity augmentations, anyway."

Comcast said earlier that it would start introducing multi-gig symmetrical speeds to its customers in 2023, completing its rollout to 50 million homes by 2025.

According to "back of the napkin math" performed by Light Reading, Nafshi's declaration means that passing 50 million homes with multi-gig services will cost Comcast less than $10 billion -- a bargain, given that full fiber-to-the-home delivery would run $1,000 per home passed ($50 billion total).

The move, however, would only "lay the groundwork," Light Reading said, for upgrades to a next-generation "10G" standard like Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 -- at a cost that would run tens of billions more.

Usage Continues to Spike

OVI's third-quarter 2022 "Broadband Insights" report does show broadband usage demands in the U.S. continue to increase at a rapid clip. The average subscribing home used 495.5 gigabytes of data in the third quarter vs. 434.9 GB a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of "power users" -- subscribing households that consume 1 terabyte of data each month or more -- keeps increasing, particularly for those with flat-rate service plans.

According to OVI, 14.6% of flat-rate-billed homes now fall under the power user definition. In fact, 2.3% of this cohort used 2 TB or more in the third quarter.

The National Cable Television Cooperative said it has reached an agreement with Evolution Digital to make the WiFi and video solutions provider’s suite of broadband and Android TV products available to NCTC’s more than 700 service provider members. 

As part of the deal, NCTC member operators can access Evolution’s OpenSync certified devices as well as its line of Android TV hardware including eSTREAM 4K, EVO FORCE 1 and EVO PRO.

“This new agreement further builds upon the trusted and long-standing relationship between Evolution Digital and NCTC,” Evolution Digital chief revenue officer Marc Cohen said in a press release. “We are excited to continue our close partnership to enable best-in-breed services for the connected whole-home ecosystem. Evolution Digital’s acumen for delivering the latest innovative technology at a competitive price point, coupled with NCTC’s reliability and efficiency for managing materials and transactions, breeds reliability and promptness with the service providers that we jointly serve. We look forward to working closely with NCTC.”

News of the Evolution deal comes on the heels of an enhanced partnership agreement between the co-op and OpenVault that will bring technical solutions and data-driven analytics to NCTC members to help improve broadband business outcomes. 

As part of that agreement, NCTC members will have access to OpenVault’s lineup of tools to improve network performance, subscriber satisfaction and monetization. NCTC and OpenVault also will provide the NCTC-OpenVault Industry Trends and Analytics Report, a customized report containing leading indicators and analysis to help NCTC members make informed business decisions and stay ahead of broadband usage trends.

As part of the preferred partnership, OpenVault will drive value to NCTC members via:

“Since 2012, OpenVault and NCTC have had a great partnership. OpenVault’s tools enable our Members to make data driven decisions to better manage and monetize their networks as consumer demands rapidly change,” NCTC director, technology innovation Zach Cutrell said in a press release. “This new agreement only strengthens our relationship, expanding on the available feature set while introducing new pricing options for even our smallest Members.”

NCTC and OpenVault (Booth 315) will make the first edition of the customized OVBI report available at The Independent Show July 24-27 in Orlando, Florida. In addition, OpenVault CEO and founder Mark Trudeau, Cutrell and other NCTC members will discuss broadband usage trends during an NCTC-members webinar on August 18 (2 PM CT).

“NCTC members’ commitments to network performance and customer satisfaction have been huge contributors to broadband’s near-ubiquitous footprint,” OpenVault chief commercial officer Josh Barstow said in a press release. “Working more closely than ever with NCTC, we can deliver the solutions and expertise operators need to bring the full value of broadband to the communities they serve.”

Telecom companies building their broadband networks for the stresses of tomorrow often point to the use cases of live-streamed major sports events. And the April 4 NCAA Mens Basketball Championship showdown, featuring Kansas edging fellow blue blood program North Carolina 72-69, provides as good of an example as any. 

According to OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J.-based company that helps telecom clients measure and optimize their broadband usage and efficiency, broadband usage across the state of Kansas surged 24% over the previous three-week average as the game reached its final minutes at 10 p.m. local time. 

Other Interesting Points from OpenVault's Q1 2022 'Broadband Insights' Report

The percentage of U.S. broadband users subscribing to ISP tiers of 1 gigabit-per-second and above has reached 13.4%, up from the 9.8% reported in OpenVault's Q1 2021 report.

And "power users," those subscribers who go through 1 terabyte or more of data per month, increased from 12.4% to 14.6% of the market, year over year, according to OpenVault. And "super power users" -- those who consume 2 TB or above per month -- went from 1.8% to 2.4% of the market. (Both figures represent a weighted average of customers billed on both flat-rate and usage-based plans.)

The mainstream adoption of bandwidth-intensive habits like streaming video has had a dramatic impact recently on broadband networks. And that's being felt on a particularly intense level here in the U.S. 

Based on an average weighted measurement, Americans used 536.3 gigabytes of data in the fourth quarter, an 11% year-over-year uptick. The figures come from OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of  “revenue and network improvement solutions and data-driven insights for the broadband industry." 

The increase represents dramatic growth in just a 48-month timespan, with average weighted U.S. data usage measured at just 202.6 GB in the fourth quarter of 2017. 

Not surprisingly, the increased data usage has arrived hand in hand with the enhanced ability to use data. According to OpenVault, as of Q4 2021, only 17% of U.S. internet service subscribers had a plan that was rated at less than 100 megabits per second for downloads. 

The company said that gigabit homes, a tiny minority of less than 1% not that long ago, now represent 12.2% of the pie. 

As OpenVault has effectively charted over the past several years, the number of "power users" has grown at an increasing rate. Nearly 18% of customers who are on flat-rate-billing plans use 1 terabyte or more of data a month, and over 3% now use more than 2 TB. 

The numbers are significantly lower -- but not that much lower -- for plans that are billed based on data usage. 

This last graphic from OpenVault's Q4 report was most surprising to us -- at 536.3 GB for average weighted data usage, U.S. consumers chew through nearly twice as much 1s and zeros as their European counterparts do. 

OpenVault, the Hoboken, N.J.-based broadband technology company, said Wednesday that it has purchased VelociData for an undisclosed sum, a move it says will help it expand into new markets and product lines. 

OpenVault helps broadband service providers better optimize and monetize their networks. With VelociData’s research and development capabilities and list of top-tier customers in the U.S. and Latin America, the company claims it will be able to serve cable, fiber and wireless broadband operators better. 

“The broadband environment is changing so quickly that it seems like each time we help our customers solve one data problem, a new one crops up,” OpenVault founder and CEO Mark Trudeau said in a press release. “VelociData’s focus on engineering and R&D gives us the resources and the synergies that will enable our product and sales teams at any scale to provide even more advanced solutions that will keep the broadband industry ahead of the fast pace of technology, consumer demand, and the competition.”

In an interview, Trudeau said VelociData provides his company with the missing pieces to attract larger Tier 1 providers.

“Certainly having cut or teeth on the small operators, it’s very hard to move upmarket and get that kind of credibility. VelociData has already been in at some Tier 1’s, and that right overnight gives us credibility,” Trudeau said. Because not only are these Tier 1’s long-term customers, but their referenceable customers as well. It does allow us to tell the Tier 1 story. And it’s very complementary to what we do.”

Trudeau explained that OpenVault has taken a different approach to the market originally, less about the data collection and data science and scalability side, but focused more on use cases. That made sense for Tier 2 and Tier 3 clients because they needed that kind of help. VelociData was more about solving the big data problem, making it available and staging it to be able to be used. 

“The beauty of what we’re doing by combining is they were solving the data problem, we were solving the domain and the use case problem. Now we have both,” Trudeau added.   

The VelociData purchase is the first major purchase for Open Vault since it attracted investment from three existing customers -- Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, and Blue Ridge Communications -- in October. That investment was targeted at driving expansion via mergers and acquisitions, organic growth, and increased visibility – most notably increased market activity in Europe and Latin America. 

Trudeau said that OpenVault will continue to look for M&A opportunities in the data business. 

“The idea behind the funding was to step on the gas as a company,” Trudeau said, adding that the company is also looking to grow organically, expanding its sales reach especially in Latin America. “...Our eyes are wide open. We’ve got a set of investors that are willing to fund additional acquisitions, and we’re going to do it in an opportunistic way. But we’re going to continue to grow organically as much as we can too.” 

According to OpenVault, the VelociData  purchase immediately increases its size and scale in the U.S. and Latin America; gives it access to more than 120 patents worldwide in the area of data science; brings a proven world-class R&D team to the company to develop new products specifically for the broadband industry; accelerates its strategy to provide additional Closed Loop Automation solutions, including Profile Management Application and enhanced data collection functionality like Streaming Telemetry; and offers more diverse deployment options, including the public cloud, private cloud, on-premises and appliances, for operators. 

Trudeau said OpenVault, which currently has about 50 employees, will bring on VelociData’s 12 workers as part of the deal.  

“Whether it’s better performance or subscriber usage insights, real-time data is the key to unlocking more value from broadband networks,” VelociData CEO Barry Rudolph said in a press release. “As part of the OpenVault organization, we will be able to help broadband providers not only to collect network data, but also to make that data actionable in ways that will immediately improve bottom line results while enabling future shifts to more highly automated intelligent networks.”

You don't want to get too close to me, baby. I'm a speed clipper. 

The number of U.S. broadband users who regularly push the upper limits of their provisioned internet speed at the 9 p.m. hour increased 400% from May 2020 - September 2021, according to new data provided by OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of analytics and software-as-a-service products to internet service providers. 

The phenomena is known as "speed clipping." OpenVault says it occurs most often with multiple members of a subscribing household simultaneously taxing the network with high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, video gaming and video conferencing. 

The threshold for speed clipping occurs when the household uses 80% or more of its provisioned speed. 

And speed clipping kills ... network efficiency, resulting in unnecessary service interruptions and trouble calls, OpenVault says. 

The answer, according to analytics provider OpenVault. Well, relevant broadband analytics! (Hey, at least we didn't let these guys write one of those blogs on our platform telling us about a problem they happen to solve.)

Other data morsels released by OpenVault:

> The number gigabit speed subscribers is up 4.5x over the last two years, but 56.2% of U.S. homes remain in tiers with downstream speeds of 200 Mbps or slower. 

> Monthly weighted average broadband usage--including both usage-based billing (UBB) and flat-rate billing (FRB) subscribers--was 434.9 gigabytes in the third quarter, up 13% over the third quarter of 2022 and up slightly from Q2 2021. 

> Flat-rate billing subscribers usage growth was 52% more than that of usage-based subscribers, resulting in usage per subscriber that was nearly 10% higher (458GB vs. 419GB); in addition, FRB-based networks exhibited 53% growth among extreme power users of 2 terabytes or more, while extreme power user growth among UBB subscribers was 39%.

OpenVault said it has secured "significant funding" from three small operators -- Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications and Blue Ridge Communications -- to help it move into the next stage of its development. Terms were not disclosed.

“The Service Electric companies and Blue Ridge share a vision of the connected future and their collaborative approach to working with technology companies is helping to spur innovation that is driving the broadband industry forward,” OpenVault co-founder and CEO  Mark Trudeau said in a press release. “Their investment will bring a new dimension to our long-term partnership, and we’re excited to use the funds to expand our reach and accelerate our growth.”

OpenVault, based in Hoboken, N.J., helps broadband suppliers optimize and monetize their networks. In a press release, the company said the investment from the three cable operators, who are also customers, will help it accelerate growth domestically and internationally, most notably in Europe and Latin America.

“As broadband has increased in prominence, companies such as OpenVault have played essential roles in supporting our delivery of high-quality services,” Blue Ridge Communications and Pencor Services president David Masenheimer said in a press release. “By making a direct investment in OpenVault, we can be financial catalysts to their growth, while providing strategic guidance that can help them align product technology development with industry needs.”

Around 10.5% of U.S. broadband subscribers take a service with a download speed of 1 gigabit per second or higher, according to new figures released by ISP software-as-a-service provider OpenVault.

The Q2 figures represent more than a doubling of the 4.8% market share reported in the second quarter of 2020. 

At the same time, homes with speeds of less than 100 megabits per second declined significantly, representing nearly 40% in the second quarter of 2020 but just 20.1% in  Q2 of this year. 

According to Hoboken, N.J.-based OpenVault, average broadband usage was up more than 14% year over year to 433.5 gibabytes of data, but down 6% sequentially from the first quarter. 

Notably, the firm said the overall trend towards higher speeds is encouraging power usage. The percentage of subscribers who used 500 GB or more a month increased by 2.7% in the second quarter to nearly 32% of the market. 

The percentage of the market chewing up 1 terabyte or more, meanwhile, shot up to 10.8%. 

The percentage of U.S. broadband subscribers who are provisioned for 1-gigabit-per-second download speeds and higher reached 9.8% in the first quarter.

The market share figure represents a 261% year-over-year increase—as of the first quarter of 2020, only 3.8% of broadband customers had pricey 1-gig service, according to OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J. provider of software, service and data solutions to high-speed internet providers. 

U.S. broadband providers have spent billions of dollars on upgrades over the last decade to DOCSIS 3.1 and FTTH standards, all aimed at providing download speeds in excess of 940 Mbps. These services have been available for five years, but only a sliver of the market pays for them.

OpenVault’s latest report also notes that slightly more than 80% of U.S. broadband customers are provisioned for download speeds of 100 Mbps or higher. 

Notably, OpenVault found that broadband usage continues to moderate following a pandemic year featuring share increases.

Monthly weighted average usage was 461.7 gigabytes in the first quarter of 2021, up nearly 15% from 402.5 GB in Q1 of 2020, but down 4.3% from 482.6 in the second quarter of last year. 

Power users—defined as customers who use more than 1 terabyte of data per month dropped 12% to 12.4% of the market. And “extreme power users”—those who chew up more than 2 TB—dropped 14% to 1.8% of broadband users.

Yes, we transacted an unprecedented amount of 1s and 0s amid the pandemic, not just downstream for watching Netflix, but also upstream, letting bosses and teachers see our happy faces on Zoom cameras. 

OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J. company that consults broadband suppliers on how they can optimize and monetize their networks, continues to release data points highlighting the specifics of this dramatic usage increase

U.S. broadband consumers increased their upstream usage by 63% from December 2019 to December 2020, from an average of 19 gigabytes a month to 31 GB. 

Still not totally blown way? OK, here's more.

Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., U.S. broadband users saw upstream consumption increase from 5.25 GB to 10.42 GB over the same one year span. 

That 98.5% increase compared to 51.74% growth for downstream traffic, from 91.9 GB to 139.45 GB. 

The rate of growth increase for upstream traffic was 350% over historic rates, OpenVault said. 

Notably, 1% of the U.S. broadband using population uses 30% of the upstream traffic, and 5% of these super users consume 50% of upstream data. 

OpenVault also said that during peak hours, “operators routinely face situations in which a single subscriber accounts for more than 80% of available upstream capacity."

The average U.S. broadband subscriber will use 600 GB - 650 GB of data per month by the end of 2021, consultancy OpenVault predicts.

According to Mark Trudeau, CEO of the Hoboken, N.J.-based firm that offers cable companies insight into their networks, the prediction is based on an historic trend of 25% average annual growth. 

OpenVault pegged average usage at 339 GB as recently as January of last year, right before the pandemic changed the world. Average consumption quickly spiked to 429 GB in April before leveling off. But average usage ended the year at 483 GB, OpenVault said in a report issued just several weeks ago.

Also Read: FCC's Jessica Rosenworcel Circulates Emergency Broadband Benefit Order

Trudeau said it isn’t just the pandemic that’s driving increased consumption—it’s all that speed, with cable operators now routinely making 200 Mbps a default setting. 

“You have to remember, it’s not just usage behavior that changes, but as faster and faster speeds become available, as subscribers move up to those faster speeds with higher-quality devices, etc., that all drives consumption,” he said. "So you could have the same usage behavior but with higher quality devices and higher speeds it’s going to drive more volume of usage.”

In its report released earlier this month, OpenVault also found that 14.1% of U.S. high-speed internet subscribers, per weighted average, used more than 1 TB of data per month in 2020, a 94% increase over 2019.

Notably, Comcast announced this week that it’s further pushing back plans to initiate a 1.2 TB monthly usage cap until 2022.

U.S. broadband consumers are using more data than ever, while service providers have a proven economic incentive to cap their usage.

That’s the takeaway from a year-end report just published by OpenVault, a broadband analytics company serving the cable industry. The firm found that operators deploying “usage-based billing” yield 73% higher average revenue per customer (ARPU) compared with those using flat-rate billing. 

With most usage caps set at around 1 terabyte to 1.2 TB, that’s increasingly an issue for U.S. consumers.

OpenVault also found that 14.1% of U.S. high-speed internet subscribers, per weighted average, used more than 1 TB of data per month in 2020, a 94% increase over 2019.

Overall, internet consumption was up big in the 2020 pandemic year. Both flat-rate and usage-based subscribers consumed a weighted average of 482.6 GB a month in the fourth quarter, OpenVault said, up 40% over 2019.

Notably, usage peaked in the fourth quarter, rising to a 2020-high average of 483 GB, OpenVault said (see chart). The story was the same for upstream usage, which also peaked in December at 31 GB.

For the first time, OpenVault reported, more than half (53.6%) of U.S. broadband customers now routinely use more than 250 GB of data each month. Just a few years ago, OpenVault noted, the 250 GB level was considered power usage. 

Also for the first time, more than half (50.6%) of users subscribe to a speed tier rated at 100 megabits per second to 200 Mbps. The average downstream speed is 207.11 GB.

Notable as well is the significantly higher broadband usage in North America vs. Europe. Last year’s 482.6 GB of average total usage in North America compared to just 301.2 GB in Europe. 

U.S. broadband consumers are using more data than ever, while service providers have proven economic incentive to cap their usage.

That’s the takeaway from a year-end report just published by OpenVault, a broadband analytics company serving the cable industry. The Hoboken, N.J.-based firm found that operators deploying “usage-based billing” yield 73% higher average revenue per customer (ARPU) compared to those who use flat rate billing. 

Also read: Comcast Delays Northeast Rollout of 1.2 TB Data Cap to July

With most usage caps set at around 1 terabyte - 1.2 TB, that’s increasingly an issue for U.S. consumers.

OpenVault also found that 14.1% of U.S. high-speed internet subscribers, per weighted average, used more than 1 TB of data per month in 2020, a 94% increase over 2019.

Overall, internet consumption was up big in the 2020 pandemic year, as we’ve all heard half a million times. Both flat-rate and usage-based subscribers consumed a weighted average of 482.6 GB a month in the fourth quarter, OpenVault said, up 40% over 2019.

Notably, usage peaked in the fourth quarter, rising to a 2020-high average of 483 GB, OpenVault said (see chart). The story was the same for upstream usage, which also peaked in December at 31 GB.

The firm said that for the first time, more than half (53.6%) of U.S. broadband customers now routinely use more than 250 GB of data each month. Just a few years ago, OpenVault notes, the 250 GB level was considered power usage. 

Also for the first time, more than half (50.6%) of users had a speed tier rated at 100 Mbps - 200 Mbps. The average downstream speed is now 207.11 GB.

Notable, as well, is the significantly higher broadband usage in North America vs. Europe. Last year’s 482.6 GB of average total usage in North America compared to just 301.2 GB in Europe. 

Before the cable industry worries too much about “10G,” maybe operators should prove they can sell just one “G,” huh?

According to the third quarter market report just published by OpenVault, a Hoboken, N.J.-based company that provides cable operators and other internet service providers with data about their networks, only 5.63% of the U.S. broadband market subscribed to 1-gigabit-capable internet service in Q3. 

The biggest share of the pie, 36.4% according to OpenVault, are subscribers who take services with speeds ranging from 100 Mbps - 200 Mbps. Speeds of 50 Mbps - 75 Mbps are the next most popular (nearly 20%), followed by 200 Mbps - 400 Mbps (14%). 

It was six years ago that cable operators began an expensive upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 network technology standards, which enable 1 Gbps speeds (well, technically, 940 Mbps, which is what most 1-gig services actually deliver. Telcos including AT&T and Verizon have made their own expensive fiber-to-the-home investments.

But only a sliver of the U.S. broadband market is going large. 

Operators, of course, are already ramping up hype for the next iterations of their networks. Responding to the wireless industry's endless 5G hype parade, the cable industry, under an umbrella marketing initiative it calls “10G,” is at the very beginning of a massive investment cycle it says will one day enable its hybrid fiber-coax networks to deliver 10 Gbps speeds, simultaneously downstream and up. 

At virtual trade events, cable industry consortium CableLabs—which is the forefront of developing DOCSIS 4.0 and other technology specifications that will enable this transformation—reaches for futuristic use cases ranging from self-driving cars to holographic entertainment and communications. 

The essential message: This is the fancy way we will live. This is why we need these nice, expensive things.

Again, we'll probably get there someday. But it might help if more than 10% of customers knew what to do with 940 Mbps.

Certainly, the amount of data U.S. broadband homes are using keeps going up amid the pandemic. According to OpenVault, the average U.S. internet home used nearly 384 gigabytes of data in the third quarter, up 40% year over year, and increased slightly from the nearly 380 GB averaged in the second quarter. 

And as OpenVault also noted, the number of heavy internet users keeps increasing. Speaking during a webinar hosted by OpenVault to explain its latest quarterly report, company CEO Mark Trudeau said that within 2-3 years, 5%-10% of broadband subscribers will be “extreme power users” who consume more than 2 terabytes of data per month. Only about 1% of users fall into that category right now, OpenVault says. 

Gigabit-speed internet service options are finally seeing tangible market penetration, with broadband research and consultancy firm OpenVault reporting that 5% of U.S. broadband connections had speeds of 1 Gbps or higher as of the end of June.

That amounts to 133% year-over-year growth, according to the Hoboken, N.J.-based company.

Also read: Residential Internet Usage Surges 98% Amid COVID-19-related Social Distancing

About 61% of all high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S. now have connections of 100 Mbps or faster, a one-year increase of 27%, OpenVault added.

Usage Levels Off

Pandemic-era usage habits continue to drive data usage growth: Upstream data usage increased by 56% year-over-year in the second quarter, with users more engaged in activities such as videoconferencing.

But usage patterns are also leveling off a bit, since the early pandemic peak period around March. Total average data usage declined from 402 gigabytes per month to 380 GB in the second quarter—still up 36% over the average of 280 GB at the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Notably, in the second quarter, with usage caps removed by operators including Comcast, data consumption by customers on usage-based billing plans increased by nearly 42% year over year, from 262.9 GB to 372.8 GB. 

Gigabit-speed internet service options are finally seeing tangible market penetration, with broadband research and consultancy firm OpenVault reporting that 5% of U.S. broadband connections had speeds of 1 Gbps or higher as of the end of June. 

That amounts to 133% year-over-year growth, according to the Hoboken, N.J.-based company. 

Also read: Residential Internet Usage Surges 98% Amid COVID-19-related Social Distancing

About 61% of all high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S. now have connections of 100 Mbps or faster, a one-year increase of 27%, OpenVault added. 

Usage Levels Off

Pandemic-era usage habits continue to drive data usage growth: Upstream data usage increased by 56% year-over-year in the second quarter, with users more engaged in activities such as videoconferencing. 

But usage patterns are also leveling off a bit, since the early pandemic peak period around March. Total average data usage declined from 402 gigabytes per month to 380 GB in the second quarter—still up 36% over the average of 280 GB at the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Notably, in the second quarter, with usage caps removed by operators including Comcast, data consumption by customers on usage-based billing plans increased by nearly 42% year over year, from 262.9 GB to 372.8 GB. 

After a huge spike in March in response to COVID-19 home sequestering measures, residential internet use has “leveled off,” according to broadband research and consultancy firm OpenVault.

According to the Hoboken, N.J.-based company, which measures use of hundreds of thousands of ISP customers in North America, total downstream data consumption fell 5.8% for the week of March 30-April 3. Upstream usage, meanwhile, showed only a modest week-over-week gain of 2.3%.

Related: Residential Internet Usage Surges 98% Amid COVID-19-related Social Distancing

In mid-March, when states and cities began issuing shelter-in-place orders and guidelines, and a number of providers removed usage caps, OpenVault measured downstream usage spikes during peak periods of up to 98% in certain markets.

For the most recent measured week, overall data usage was still up 33.1% over January benchmarks. Average daily downstream consumption during business hours (9-5) last week was 6.35 gigabytes, up 42.46% over January levels. Upstream usage rose 82.5% from January to 0.392 GB.

“It’s too early to say that the industry has weathered the storm of additional usage, but signs point to the greatest surge of growth by far as being behind us,” said Mark Trudeau, CEO and founder of OpenVault, in a statement. “Operators will need to keep close eyes on any incremental increases — particularly during peak hours and in the upstream – as well as the impact of new quarantines in additional markets, but their networks seem in the meantime to be well-prepared to handle this increased data consumption.”

After a huge spike in March in response to COVID-19 home sequestering measures, residential internet use has “leveled off,” according to broadband research and consultancy firm OpenVault.

According to the Hoboken, N.J.-based company, which measures use of hundreds of thousands of ISP customers in North America, total downstream data consumption fell 5.8% for the week of March 30 to April 3. Upstream usage, meanwhile, showed only a modest week-over-week gain of 2.3%.

Also read: Residential Internet Usage Surges 98% Amid COVID-19-related Social Distancing

In mid-March, when states and cities began issuing shelter-in-place orders and guidelines, OpenVault measured downstream usage spikes during peak periods of up to 98% in certain markets. 

For the most recent measured week, overall data usage was still up 33.1% over January benchmarks. Average daily downstream consumption during business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) last week was 6.35 gigabytes, up 42.46% over January levels. Upstream usage rose 82.5% from January to 0.392 GB on average.

“It’s too early to say that the industry has weathered the storm of additional usage, but signs point to the greatest surge of growth by far as being behind us,” said Mark Trudeau, CEO and founder of OpenVault, in a statement. “Operators will need to keep close eyes on any incremental increases — particularly during peak hours and in the upstream – as well as the impact of new quarantines in additional markets, but their networks seem in the meantime to be well-prepared to handle this increased data consumption.”

While global attention has rightfully focused on whether city hospitals and central banks can hold up to the massive, sudden pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, another system has also come under concern: broadband infrastructure.

OpenVault, a company that consults cable operators and other internet service providers, said U.S. homes are now using 460 gigabytes of data per month, a 27% increase over what had been the previous record usage month, January. During business hours, as households use their residential broadband subscriptions for remote office work and virtual schooling, average usage has risen to 6.3 GB, up 41.4% over January, OpenVault said.

Evenings are the peak hours, with consumers no longer out at bars, restaurants, sporting events and social gatherings, but streaming high- definition and 4K video instead. Open- Vault said average usage between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. in March has risen 17.2%, to 5.87 GB.

Nokia’s Deepfield, another surveyor of real-time network performance, said it has observed 20% to 40% increased network use during these “peak” hours.

Netflix traffic has risen 54% to 75%, according to Nokia Deepfield, and online gaming usage has grown 400%.

Nielsen, which has observed TV usage increases during recent disasters including the 2016 Northeast blizzard and Hurricane Harvey in 2017, expects streaming usage to spike as much as 61%.

Facebook’s ‘Big Surges’

Meanwhile, in a conference call with reporters, Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his social network is seeing “big surges” in usage amid the coronavirus pandemic. He said Facebook has nearly doubled its server capacity to power messaging app WhatsApp as users place more voice and video calls on the platform.

Regulators in both the U.S. and Europe are concerned that all this increased social distancing usage will break the internet.

In a tweet posted Wednesday, Thierry Breton, the French businessman serving as European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, said he had a phone conversation with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He’s urging Netflix and other OTT companies to stream their video in standard definition instead of the much higher intensity high-def or 4K/Ultra HD. In a statement, Breton said streaming platforms, telecom operators and internet users “all have a joint responsibility to take steps to ensure the smooth functioning of the internet during the battle against the virus propagation.”

Netflix initially responded by touting its Open Connect program, which allows ISPs to locally manage the SVOD service’s traffic on their networks. But Netflix later agreed to lower the bitrate in which it streams its video for 30 days in Europe. “We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25% while also ensuring a good quality service for our members,” Netflix said.

U.S. regulators are concerned, too.

“This is going to be an enormous stress test for our communications networks,” Blair Levin, a former FCC chief of staff and author of the agency’s 2010 plan to improve internet access nationwide, told CNN.

The FCC has already given T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless increased access to the 600 Megahertz spectrum for the next 60 days, providing extra wireless capacity for data connections.

More Room for Wireless

“We’re doing everything in our power to make sure that our networks are there when our customers need them,” Verizon senior VP for technology strategy and planning Adam Koeppe said in a statement. “While our networks continue to perform well during this crisis, this spectrum will allow us to add capacity to ensure great service for our customers, businesses and all on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19.”

Those charged with lobbying for the telecom industry have tried to strike a reassuring tone. In a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, US Telecom president and CEO Jonathan Spalter wrote, “Broadband providers are laser focused on making sure the innovative networks they built and manage are ready to accommodate a prolonged reliance on telework, distance learning and other forms of high bandwidth remote communications."

In another statement, Lise Fuhr, director general of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, said, “At this stage, new traffic patterns are being effectively handled by engineers as per standard network operations.” 

As Americans move encase to conduct their work, schooling and overall social interaction at home via the internet, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, residential broadband usage is soaring.

OpenVault, which offers data, insights and consulting to broadband service providers, said that average downstream residential data usage for urban dwellers reached 5.16 gigabytes on Tuesday, March 10, the day after dire warnings from the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and other health authorities inspired many companies to issue work-from-home edicts and many school districts to shut down.

Average downstream usage for urban dwellers on Monday, March 16, also clocked in around 5.1 GB, more than double the amount of average data consumed nine weeks earlier, on Monday Jan. 20. Monday’s average downstream usage was 98% higher than the most recent baseline Monday, March 9, a day when the stock market endured a record plunge and seemed to accelerate concern about the spread of coronavirus in the U.S.

Average upstream usage surged to 0.326 GB Monday, OpenVault said, up 68% over Monday March 16.

Also read: Streaming Video Usage to Spike 61% Amid Social Distancing: Nielsen

The figures are based on "hundreds of thousands" of high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S., OpenVault said.

The increased internet traffic from remote office work and schooling only adds to increased traffic generation by entertainment applications as Americans stay at home, with Nielsen projecting a 61% increase in U.S. video streaming usage.

Operators of wireline broadband networks are responding confidently to questions as to whether their infrastructures can handle the increased load.

“We recognize that more of our customers will be working remotely or taking classes online," Verizon said in a statement. “Verizon’s networks are designed and built to meet future demand and are ready should demand increase or usage patterns change significantly.”

Meanwhile, in a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of US Telecom, wrote, “Broadband providers are laser focused on making sure the innovative networks they built and manage are ready to accommodate a prolonged reliance on telework, distance learning and other forms of high bandwidth remote communications."

As Americans move encase to conduct their work, schooling and overall social interaction at home via the internet, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, residential broadband usage is soaring.

OpenVault, which offers data, insights and consulting to broadband service providers, said that average downstream residential data usage for urban dwellers reached 5.16 gigabytes on Tuesday, March 10, the day after dire warnings from the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and other health authorities inspired many companies to issue work-from-home edicts and many school districts to shut down. 

Average downstream usage for urban dwellers on Monday, March 16, also clocked in around 5.1 GB, more than double the amount of average data consumed nine weeks earlier, on Monday January 20. Monday’s average downstream usage was 98% higher than the most recent baseline Monday, March 9, a day when the stock market endured a record plunge and seemed to accelerate concern about the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. 

Average upstream usage surged to 0.326 GB Monday, OpenVault said, up 68% over Monday March 16. 

The figures are based on "hundreds of thousands" of high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S., OpenVault said. 

Also read: Streaming Video Usage to Spike 61% Amid Social Distancing: Nielsen

The increased internet traffic from remote office work and schooling only adds to increased traffic generation by entertainment applications as Americans stay at home, with Nielsen projecting a 61% increase in U.S. video streaming usage. 

Operators of wireline broadband networks are responding confidently to questions as to whether their infrastructures can handle the increased load.

“We recognize that more of our customers will be working remotely or taking classes online," Verizon said in a statement. “Verizon’s networks are designed and built to meet future demand and are ready should demand increase or usage patterns change significantly.”

Meanwhile, in a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO fo US Telecom, wrote, “Broadband providers are laser focused on making sure the innovative networks they built and manage are ready to accommodate a prolonged reliance on telework, distance learning and other forms of high bandwidth remote communications."

The average amount of internet usage by U.S. broadband homes surged 27.3% in 2019, reaching 344 gigabytes, according to a new report published by telecom industry consultancy OpenVault.

The latest surge in broadband usage correlates with an aggregate increase in provisioned internet speed, which jumped from an average of 103.1 Mbps in 2018 to 128.3 Mbps last year.

(And as OpenVault noted in a report released in November, it’s also driven by cord cutting—those who ditched traditional pay TV averaged 520 GB of data usage a month, according to that earlier report.)

Related: Cord Cutters Now Averaging 520GB of Monthly Data Usage: Research Report

Meanwhile, OpenVault is predicting that median U.S. internet usage will surge past 250 GB for the first time this year, a 25% uptick over 2019.

And so-called “power users”—those that consume 1 terabyte or more of data each month—grew by 60% last year and now account for 12% of all wireline broadband users.

Notably, what we’ll call “super” power users—those who consume 2 TB or more—now account for 1.4% of the market. 

The average amount of internet usage by U.S. broadband homes surged 27.3% in 2019, reaching 344 gigabytes, according to a new report published by telecom industry consultancy OpenVault. 

The latest surge in broadband usage correlates with an aggregate increase in provisioned internet speed, which jumped from an average of 103.1 Mbps in 2018 to 128.3 Mbps last year. 

(And as OpenVault noted in a report released in November, it’s also driven by cord cutting—those who ditched traditional pay TV averaged 520 GB of data usage a month, according to that earlier report.)

Related: Cord Cutters Now Averaging 520GB of Monthly Data Usage: Research Report

Meanwhile, OpenVault is predicting that median U.S. internet usage will surge past 250 GB for the first time this year, a 25% uptick over 2019. 

And so-called “power users”—those that consume 1 terabyte or more of data each month—grew by 60% last year and now account for 12% of all wireline broadband users. 

Notably, what we’ll call “super” power users—those who consume 2 TB or more—now account for 1.4% of the market. 

When Silicon Valley met cable 30 years ago, did they know it would change the pay TV industry forever? When Hybrid Networks introduced the first cable modem — sending upstream data using the dial-up phone lines all of us had back then — was it clear that the aftershocks would continue for decades?

Thirty years after Hybrid’s innovation, faster and more robust broadband service has completely altered cable business models. A parade of new streaming services is competing for eyeballs that once were dependent on cable bundles for video entertainment, total U.S. pay TV subscribers have plunged by 17% in the past six years alone and MoffettNathanson has said another 40% are at risk to cut the cord over the next five years.

While operators such as Comcast and Charter Communications have introduced video streaming packages that shift emphasis from traditional pay TV to streaming packages, others are going even further. “Broadband first” strategies pioneered by operators such as Sparklight, the former Cable One — which has grown broadband-only subscribers to 70% of its customer base and fueled record average revenue per user (ARPU) and margins — are the new templates for 2020 and beyond.

An Ambitious Shift

Rather than try to retain video subscribers, operators increasingly are choosing to tackle the business and operational impacts of cord-cutting head on. Cable One’s success with its Sparklight rebranding shows what can happen when engineering, marketing, customer care and other functional areas are pivoted from video to focus wholeheartedly on the new broadband reality.

Here’s why this matters: For small to midsize operators that lack the diversified revenue streams of their larger brethren, the impact of cord-cutting can be particularly harsh. The loss of monthly recurring income from set-top box rentals and video packages is amplified by the increased strain on resources that video streaming creates. The OpenVault Broadband Industry Report (OVBI) has noted that cord-cutters’ broadband consumption is now beyond 500 Gigabytes per month.

For operators taking the plunge, it’s important to remember just how ambitious a transformation broadband first is. Operators need to create business models that address revenue concerns, create marketing packages that manage subscriber expectations, arm customer care to support subscribers’ issues — and, most of all, ensure that their networks are up to the task at hand. Among the considerations:

• Engineering: When operators weigh broadband-first strategies, there are multiple variables that need to be considered: As both average usage and the number of broadband subscribers grows, the draw on network resources is exponential. Networks need to be able to support multiple streams per household, 4K video and — in the not-too-distant future — 8K. And while average usage can be a useful guideline, what matters most is the network’s ability to support consumption that primarily takes place during a few peak hours. Ensuring that the network can deliver a satisfactory experience to all subscribers at all times is paramount.

• Marketing: Subscribers who proactively cut the cord have historically recognized that they are sacrificing the quality and reliability of operators’ managed video networks. As an operator offering, there is an implication that broadband first will carry higher subscriber quality of experience expectations. In addition to ensuring that their networks are capable of supporting significantly higher usage, operators need to gear marketing efforts toward educating consumers on the difference between broadband first and traditional video, as well as the importance of subscribers aligning their packages to provide the bandwidth necessary to support quality video. If infrastructure quality is uneven, marketers also should be careful to offer and promote broadband-first only where it can be supported by the network.

• Customer Care: In a broadband-first environment, customer care takes on heightened levels of importance. First, support teams are the primary points of contact when subscribers discontinue video packages and are best positioned to help customers understand the relationship between broadband speeds and video streaming quality – particularly in high-use households. It’s incumbent on operators to make sure they capitalize on that moment of contact to right-size customers; shifts to usage-based billing plans are proven to reduce consumption and can increase ARPU by more than 14% within the first year of deployment. Second, because unmanaged video delivery to connected devices, often through the in-home WiFi network, creates more opportunity for quality issues, support teams need to be ready to support higher volumes of and more complex problems.

Visibility into network conditions, customer packages and behavior, and wired and wireless device topologies within the home all are essential to helping teams resolve problems quickly, efficiently and accurately, preventing unnecessary truck rolls and increasing subscriber satisfaction.

More Speed, More Usage

In the same way that it was hard to envision 30 years ago the change the cable modem would effect, so too is it impossible to see where the industry is headed in the decades ahead. What we do know is that every increase in speed — we’re talking about you, 10G — is accompanied by a corresponding, predictable increase in consumption. And that as change continues to disrupt cable paradigms in this pivotal year, more and more operators will be positioning themselves for the future by following Cable One and numerous other providers into the “Broadband First” club.

Consumption of wireline broadband is set to increase 19% between the end of the third quarter and the culmination of the holiday season, broadband consultancy OpenVault predicted.

The Hoboken, New Jersey company, which provides tools to cable operators that provide visibility on their broadband networks, said average monthly usage will increase from 275GB a year ago to around 327GB.

Related: Cord Cutters Now Averaging 520GB of Monthly Data Usage: Research Report

The company said holiday period internet consumption has risen from 38GB in 2012.

OpenVault released data last month suggesting that cord cutters were using, on average, around 520GB of data per month.

““The holiday season is prime time for spikes in broadband usage that put increased stress on operators’ infrastructures,” said Mark Trudeau, CEO and founder of OpenVault, in a statement. “As the ribbons and bows come off countless new devices and they are connected to the Internet, they combine with cord-cutting, broadband network upgrades and higher speed packages to drive usage to record levels, ultimately setting the stage for the year ahead.”

Video cord cutters averaged 520.8 gigabytes worth of wireline internet data usage in the third quarter, a 7% year-over-year uptick according to Hoboken, New Jersey-based broadband solutions provider OpenVault.

OpenVault, which provides tools to cable operators that provide visibility on their broadband networks, said it’s talking specifically about subscribers who previously had pay TV but ditched it, not just broadband-only homes.

Notably, OpenVault said that only 29% of subscribers chose to upgrade their broadband plan to a higher speed when calling up their provider to cancel TV service during the third quarter.

Meanwhile, the number of “power users”—those subscribers who consume a terabyte or more of monthly data—is on the rise, increasing 62% year over year. OpenVault said 12% of cord cutters are now power users.

For its part, OpenVault seems to advocate through its research usage-base billing over flat-rate pricing. The company noted that the rate of power usage is 30% higher among flat-rate consumers.

In the third quarter, overall weighted average broadband usage in the U.S. was 275 gigabytes, a year-over-year increase of 21% over the Q3 2018 figure of 228 GB, OpenVault said.

NEW ORLEANS - Hoboken broadband analytics company OpenValut said it has carved out an “extension and enhancement” of its deal with Englewood, Colorado cable operator WideOpenWest (WOW).

The vendor doesn’t disclose exactly what the expansion of the relationship entails—only that it’s providing the operator with its operations, analytics and policy tools so that it can gather data on how WOW’s 800,000 customers use the internet … all in an “anonymized” way, of course.

“OpenVault’s tools provide aggregated and anonymized insight into WOW customers’ broadband habits and usage, which allows us to better manage our network so we can best deliver our innovative products and services to our customers,” said Blair Day, senior VP of product and network engineering for WOW. “As we continue to work together, OpenVault’s market insights will help us continue to understand and respond to our customers’ desires to use broadband services where they want, when they want and how they want.”

“WOW’s commitment to service quality has resulted in a robust broadband offering that continues to attract new subscribers,” added Mark Trudeau, founder and CEO of OpenVault. “We look forward to continuing and expanding our partnership with them to forecast future trends, pro-actively eliminate unexpected impairments and expedite service delivery.”

The average wireline broadband subscriber used 271 gigabytes a month of data in the second quarter, up around 25% year over year, according to a new OpenVault report.

The Hoboken, New Jersey-based company, which creates software tools and analysis for broadband suppliers, ties a close correlation for the rapid increase to, of course, cord cutting.

In a model included in the study in which “thousands” of cord cutters were studied, OpenVault shows data usage rapidly spiking to 487GB in average homes after linear pay TV services were ditched.

Related: Nearly 16% of Broadband ‘Power Users’ Have Connection Speeds of 75 Mbps or Less

Among internet-only households, average bandwidth consumption in the second quarter was 390.42 GB, while bundled subscribers consumed, on average, 210.89 GB of data, a difference of 85%.

OpenVault said average usage is most intense among customers that don’t have usage-based caps. These customers used an average of 282.5 gigs vs. just 262.9 GB for capped users.

Yes indeed, OpenVault is an advocate for caps.

“While usage-based billing often is considered as a revenue enhancing tool, the reality is that it spurs subscribers to find harmony between their broadband speeds and their usage patterns,” said Josh Barstow, executive VP of corporate strategy and business development for OpenVault. “As more and more subscribers exhibit cord-cutting behavior, visibility into usage behavior and sound usage-based billing plans will help operators to manage increasingly busy networks and ensure subscriber satisfaction.”

Some of the biggest consumers of cable broadband service are still using the industry’s most primitive products.

That’s the takeaway of a data snapshot provided to MCN today by Hoboken, New Jersey-based research company OpenVault, which is looking to drum up a little attention ahead of the company’s appearance next week at the Independent Show in Chicago.

Notably, nearly 16% of cable broadband users who exceeded 1 terabyte of data consumption in June subscribe to a speed tier of 75 Mbps or less. In fact, 5.4% of these “power users” have a speed tier of 20-30 Mbps.

It’s unclear as to how many of those folks are in rural places with limited speed options. But according to an OpenVault spokesperson, it’s probably useful data for cable operators looking to sell 1 Gbps services.

Notably, only around 11% of broadband users exceeding the 1TB cap have 1-gig speed tiers.

Positioned at Booth No. 600 at the Independent Show, OpenVault will show of its "ACS WFi Insider" Wi-Fi visibility product, which was recognized last month as a leading new technology innovation by the Society for Broadband Professionals. In addition, as part of its OV Cares initiative, OpenVault will be collecting unused, travel-sized personal hygiene items from event attendees to benefit Chicago-based Sarah’s Circle, an organization that provides refuge to women who are homeless. 

U.S. consumers who take wireline internet from their telecom service provider but not TV averaged 395.7 gigabytes of usage in the first quarter—that is 120 GB more than the general average.

Indeed, video cord cutting continues to result in more streaming, with so-called power users—those who averaged more than 1 terabyte of monthly consumption—doubling to 4.2% in Q1.

These power users accounted for 6.5% of internet-only homes in Q1 vs. just 2.2% for subscribers who bundle video with broadband.

Median usage for internet-only consumers was 294.5 GB vs. 93.8 GB for bundlers.

These metrics will become increasingly relevant as usage of things like 4K streaming grows, with many internet service providers charging a premium for consumption exceeding 1 TB.

Related: 1-TB 'Power Users' Nearly Doubled in 2018: Study

The numbers were released by OpenVault, which provides analytics and tech solutions for broadband operators.

The Q1 numbers represent a slight uptick from the full-year 2018 figures OpenVault released in January. At that time, OpenVault said that power users represented 4.12% of the overall U.S. customer base. Overall average usage was 268.7 GB.

In the first quarter of 2019, OpenVault said, U.S. broadband users overall averaged 273.5 GB of internet consumption, a 27% year-over-year uptick.

Notably, the portion of users consuming more than 2 terabytes per month more than doubled to 0.38% from 0.16%.

In their first-quarter earnings reports, both Comcast and Charter reported significant year-over-year upticks in median internet usage. 

Continuing to provide clarity on just how much wireline internet the average American consumer is using each month, Charter Communications said median residential usage is around 200 gigabytes.

That jibes with figures released by Comcast earlier this week—numbers that were also disclosed in the context of a first quarter earnings call.

However, Charter also said that customers who don’t also bundle video service with their broadband average 400GB of data usage a month.

Charter didn’t disclose average usage for all customers, so there isn’t a way to directly compare consumption by cord cutters to the general broadband subscriber population.

Related: Comcast: Median Customer Data Use Was Up 34% to 200 GB Per Month in Q2

But as MCN reported in January, research company OpenVault said that median wireline broadband data usage in the U.S. spiked 40% to 145.2 GB in 2018. Average usage was 268.7 GB.

OpenVault said that the number of users averaging more than 1 terabyte of data consumption monthly reached 4.1% last year. 

Offering up more consumption tidbits, Charter said it’s mobile users are chewing through less than 10GB a month of data, on average.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of Charter’s wireline broadband customers are in packages that deliver speeds of 100 Mbps or more, and 30% are in tiers that have speeds of 200 Mbps or greater. 

Comcast said during its second quarter earnings call last week that its median residential customer used 34% more data in first three months of the year than in the comparable period of 2018.

Median usage, the cable company said, now exceeds 200 gigabytes per month.

“Our customers’ demand for speed and data usage keeps increasing,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.

Related: 1-TB 'Power Users' Nearly Doubled in 2018: Study

As MCN reported in January, research company OpenVault said that median wireline broadband data usage in the U.S. spiked 40% to 145.2 GB in 2018. Average usage was 268.7 GB.

Comcast has said that only a small percentage of its users are approaching, or exceeding, the 1 terabyte usage cap it enforces in 27 states.

According to OpenVault, the number of U.S. users who exceed the monthly 1 TB threshold more than doubled last year to 4.12%. 

The percentage of U.S. wireline broadband users consuming more than 1 terabyte each month of data nearly doubled in 2018 to 4.12%, according to a research published by OpenVault, a company that tracks network usage for operators.

The Hoboken, N.J.-based research company said usage is spiking not just among power users.

Average household usage was 268.7 gigabytes per month in 2018, up 33% year over year. Median usage spiked 40% to 145.2 GB.

“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 said in a statement.

Related: Capped Broadband Services Generate 12% Less Usage, Study Finds

For it’s part, OpenVault isn’t without an agenda for advocacy, counting cable broadband companies around the world as its primary customers.

Last week, the firm announced that Vodafone-owned TKS is using multiple OpenVault cloud-based solutions to gain greater insights into broadband usage across its networks and to better manage and forecast bandwidth capacity in Germany and Italy.

OpenVault said the study results justify usage caps.

“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,” said Josh Barstow, executive VP of corporate strategy and business development for OpenVault.

OpenVault has entered into a multi-stage trial with Ecuador’s largest cable operator, Grupo TVCable, marking the Hoboken, NJ-based analytics and technology vendor’s entry into the Latin American market.

Related: Synacor Scores Latin American Foothold

Grupo TVCable has signed on to use OpenVault’s operations and analytics module to better understand subscriber usage patterns and create packages that better fit its customers. The operator is also using the vendor’s policy manager tool to improve network congestion.

Related: Capped Broadband Services Generate 12% Less Usage, Study Finds

“Grupo TVCable is taking the lead in addressing important operational needs that are shared by cable and broadband operators throughout Latin America and around the world,” said George Kassas, founder and CEO of Bireme Systems and an advisor to Open Vault, in a statement. “We anticipate that their continued partner activity with OpenVault will result in further development of industry-best solutions for reducing costs, improving network performance, and ensuring that customer experiences meet or exceed expectations.”

While the strategy doesn’t necessarily result in universally happy customers, employing broadband usage caps does appear to be an effective tool for operators interested in controlling the expansion of network usage.

According to data released by OpenVault, second-quarter broadband usage by customers on plans with usage-based pricing averaged 215.6 gigabytes per household, 12.2% less than the 241.9 GB per home used by customers without capped services.

Related: WOW!: We’ll Stay Cap Free

Homes with usage-based pricing also experienced slower growth of network usage—27.3% year over year vs. 36.6% for non-capped homes.

Notable: 3.1% of customers for non-capped services exceeded the 1 terabyte monthly threshold, on average, vs. just 2% for services with caps. A number of operators in the cable industry have adopted a 1 TB usage limit.

Overall, OpenVault said average U.S. broadband usage growth in Q2 grew by 31.3% year over year to 226.4 GB.

OpenVault collects, manages and analyzes high-speed data usage from network operators.