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.
