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.
