Covid-19 drives 51% increase in broadband traffic in 2020
Details
Editor
| 10 February 2021
The ongoing trend towards broadband entertainment and work has been revealed clearly in the Q4 2020 OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report which has found that average data consumption approached half a terabyte (TByte) at the end of 2020.
OPenVault 10Feb2021
The study discovered that traffic on broadband networks rose by more than half in the quarter and per-subscriber average data usage for Q420 was 482.6 GB per month, a 40% increase over that consumed in 4Q 2019 and a 26% increase over the third quarter average. At the same time, broadband providers saw subscriber increases of 6.5%, creating a net effect of 51% more broadband traffic. Q420 median usage rose 54% year-over-year, to 293.8 GB per month from 190.7 GB in 2019.

In addition to record growth, the Q420 OVBI also showed general trends that became evident during the pandemic. OpenVault data showed that once average monthly usage jumped almost 47% in April 2020, trend lines of rising and falling usage almost uniformly followed pre-pandemic norms, albeit at the new, higher level. The report also showed the continued growth of upstream usage. In Q420, upstream consumption was 31 GB/month, an increase of 63% over 4Q19.

The Q420 report also confirmed the continued effects of power users on broadband networks. Just under one in seven subscribers now consume more than 1 TB of data per month, representing a 94% rise – 61% in the fourth quarter alone – from the 4Q19 average of 7.25%. Extreme power users, those consuming more than 2 TB per month, increased by 184% year over year, from 0.76% in 2019 to 2.2% at the end of last year. Similar to the 1 TB data, 120% of that increase occurred between Q320 and Q420.

OpenVault also observed that providers offering unlimited, flat-rate billing packages saw nearly 30% more power users than those with usage-based billing plans. More than half (53.6%) of all subscribers now consume more than the former power user threshold of 250 GB per month.

Assessing the fundamental forward trends revealed by the Q4 2020 OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report, and issuing a call to action, OpenVault said that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was complete and has forever changed broadband usage patterns. It said that network operators now must contend with significantly higher average bandwidth usage, with implications for both network management and revenue. OpenVault further advised network operators to evaluate all network management options to ensure they deliver the best customer experience while maximising profitability.”