JERSEY CITY, N.J.—New research shows that consumers continue to embrace higher-speed internet offerings, with 32.1% of all subs now subscribing to 1 Gbps broadband tiers in Q3 2023, more than double the 15.3% figure from Q3 2022.
Meanwhile, the percentage of subscribers on 100 Mbps or slower plans (10.1%) has dropped 22% since Q3 2022, according to the 3Q 2023 OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report.
The report also identified a growing class of power users who are gobbling up more than 5TB per month in data usage and found that overall data usage continues to rise.
The monthly weighted average data consumed by subscribers in Q3 2023 was 550.2 GB, up 11% from Q3 2022’s average of 495.5 GB and nominally higher (3%) compared to Q2 2023 (533.8 GB).
“Although extreme power users that average 5 TB or more monthly currently make up a modest fraction of subscribers, their numbers are steadily increasing in tandem with the widespread adoption of faster speed tiers,” the report notes. “Their heavy usage patterns – particularly in the upstream – will increasingly impact network performance, potentially resulting in subpar experiences for many customers, especially when they don’t receive the speeds they were promised.”
In a first look at the emerging category of 5 TB power users, OVBI notes that extreme power users on average stream 13 times as much data as users who consume 1 TB or less. Extreme power users’ average upstream usage of 950 GB is 5.5X that of subscribers who consume 2-5 TB per month and 12X that of users of 1-2 TB monthly. The majority of extreme power users (59%) are on gigabit tier speed plans; however, more than 7% are provisioned for speeds of 100 Mbps or slower. The category, while small, grew 60% year-over-year through 3Q23.
Extreme power users consume six times more data for online gaming than do users of 1 TB or less per month; however, they consume the least amount of social media data when compared to users in other high-usage categories categories. The power user category has been defined and redefined multiple times since 2010, initially as consumption of >250 GB of data in 2010 and later as >1 TB of data in 2017 and >2 TB of data (super power users) in 2018, the report noted.
Key findings in the 3Q23 report include:
- The monthly average data usage was 550.2 GB, up 11% year over year from 495.5 GB in 3Q22 and up 3% from the 533.8 GM recorded in 2Q23.
- Power users consuming 1 TB or more per month grew to 16.4%, a year over year increase of 19.7%, while the percentage of super power users of 2 TB or more increased by 35%, to 2.9%.
- The percentage of subscribers on gigabit speed tiers reached a new high of 32.1% in 3Q23,slightly more than the 31.6% in 2Q23, more than doubling the 15.3% figure from 3Q22.
- The percentage of subscribers on 100 Mbps or slower plans (10.1%) has dropped 22% since 3Q22.
The entire report is available here.
