Mobile Devices Account for Nearly a Third of Fixed-Access Traffic, Says Report

The average North American home has more than seven broadband devices in use every day, said a report from broadband network solutions provider Sandvine based on real network usage. Six percent of households have more than 15 active devices, with smartphones and tablets on fixed Wi-Fi networks accounting for nearly 30 percent of North American fixed access traffic, it said. So-called home roaming generated 9 percent of traffic five years ago, said Sandvine. Laptops and desktop PCs now are less than a quarter of traffic on fixed access networks, it said. Game play traffic on PlayStation 4 consoles is 2.5 percent of the total traffic the console generates, with video streaming (65 percent) and game downloads (25 percent) causing most PS4 bandwidth consumption, said the report. Roku devices, at 10 percent, were the most-used set-top box, followed by Amazon Fire TV (3.9 percent) and Apple TV (3.3 percent), it said. The top-consuming Netflix device (12 percent) on one network was the operator’s branded set-top box that streams over-the-top content, it said.