Unlimited-Plan Users Consume 67% More Data Than Limited-Plan Users, Says NPD

Cellular data usage among consumers with unlimited data plans is 67 percent higher than among those with limited plans, who tend to rely more on Wi-Fi access for their streaming-video and other needs, said NPD in a Wednesday report. Over the past three months, limited plan users consumed 8 percent more Wi-Fi than their unlimited plan counterparts, with a spike of 18 percent more usage in October, it said. “When looking at data and Wi-Fi consumption as it relates to a user’s smartphone operating system, iOS users tend to consume more cellular data, while Android users look to Wi-Fi,” it said. The average U.S. smartphone user consumes 31.4 GB of Wi-Fi and cellular data monthly, a 25 percent increase from 2016, it said. Streaming video “remains the number one driver” of cellular and Wi-Fi data consumption on mobile and fixed networks, accounting for 83 percent of the total data used by smartphone owners, said NPD. In Q3, two-thirds of all smartphone users reported accessing video content via an app at least once a month, up from 57 percent sequentially in Q2, it said.