Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World’s Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing

[Javaman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/technology/top-1-of-mobile-users-use-half-of-worlds-wireless-bandwidth.html?_r=2&ref=business

The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth.

Arieso, a company in Newbury, England, that advises mobile operators in Europe, the United States and Africa, documented the statistical gap when it tracked 1.1 million customers of a European mobile operator during a 24-hour period in November.

The gap between extreme users and the rest of the population is widening, according to Arieso. In 2009, the top 3 percent of heavy users generated 40 percent of network traffic. Now, Arieso said, these users pump out 70 percent of the traffic.

Michael Flanagan, the chief technology officer at Arieso, said the study did not produce a more precise profile of extreme users. But the group, he said, was probably diverse, with a mix of business users gaining access to the Internet over a 3G network while traveling, and individuals with generous or unlimited mobile data packages watching videos, the main cause of the excess traffic.

More at link...

[dkf]

1. It's individuals streaming video. No way business usage exceeds video.

A few hours of my nephew streaming Netflix over 3G and my 2 gig allocation is shot. If no Netflix streaming I have quite a bit of unused capacity.

[Zalatix]

2. And this information will incite the Mobile TelCo's to become LUDDITES

Online video streaming is leading the way into these new heights of bandwidth usage.

Mobile providers and will simply try to stop the onward march of technology by imposing artificial limits on people's bandwidth usage. This'll damage other businesses down the line, of course.

Expect more charges and less infrastructure growth.

[hobbit709]

3. I'd say my phone uses less than 10 to the -10 power of the bandwidth.

I make calls,, I receive calls on those occasions that I even have it turned on.

The last thing I would want to do is watch video on that little bitty screen with my eyes.