" " For the first time, the majority of cellphone users access " data services. That's driven a 50 percent increase in the " average data use across all users. " " A forthcoming study by Validas shows 53 percent of all " cellphone subscribers are data users, up from 42 percent " last year. The average data usage per subscriber is not " 145.8MB a month compared with 96.8MB a month last year. " Most of that is simply the result of more data users, " though it does suggest those with data capabilities are " using slightly more each month. " " There's a lot of attention paid to AT&T's iPhone data plans, " particularly the withdrawal of unlimited plans, but it " turns out that the device doesn't rack up the most data use " on average. Instead Verizon's users have the higher " average data use. The study shows the average Verizon " smartphone owner uses 428MB a month, compared with 338MB " for the iPhone. " " Validas also found that Verizon customers were roughly " twice as likely than iPhone users to cross either the " 500MB or 2GB barriers each month. " " It also noted that across all customers, AT&T has an " average of 149.6MB a month, compared with 147.2MB for " Verizon, 133.4MB for Sprint and 120.6MB for T-Mobile. " That's somewhat misleading as those figures include " users who don't have any data use (normally because of " the type of handset), a proportion which is significantly " higher with Verizon (57.1 percent) than AT&T (28.8 percent). " " One potential note of caution is that Validas is a company " which analyzes phone bills for customers and advises them " if they have been billed incorrectly or if they could get " a better deal elsewhere. The data used in the study comes " from customer bills, which means it is based on customers " who take a particularly keen interest in their spending. " That may bias the results towards people who use more data " than the general public (and thus have higher bills to " query), though it shouldn't favor or penalize any particular " network.
- posted
13 years ago