Average iPhone User Consumes 273MB of Data Monthly

[Paul Daniel Ash]

Consumer Reports published an analysis of the wireless bills of 100,000 customers and found that that the average iPhone owner uses almost twice as much data as users of most other smartphones, and five times the average amount used by Blackberry owners. And a small proportion of iPhone users upload and download three or more times what the average iPhone owner uses, with one in twenty-five using upwards of a gigabyte per month.

Validas is a research firm that analyzes the bills of wireless users for errors, helps resolve disputes, and saves money for consumers and businesses. According to the data Validas provided to Consumer Reports, the average iPhone user consumes 273MB of data per month. In comparison, Blackberry uses consume an average of 54MB of data each month. Users of other (non-Blackberry, non-iPhone) smartphones consume an average of 150MB per month. The data also revealed that 12% of iPhone users upload and download 500MB per month, with a third of those - or four percent - using over 1GB of data per month.

Interestingly enough, this result tracks pretty well with a comment by AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega in December. Speaking to investors at a UBS conference in New York, de la Vega said that 3% of its smartphone customers were consuming 40 percent of their network capacity. He added that AT&T would give its customers incentives to "reduce or modify their usage," which many interpreted as an indication that the company would impose a tiered pricing plan. De la Vega indicated that the first step would be to make it easier for customers to monitor their data usage so that they could "understand what represents a megabyte of data."

Consumer Reports had approached AT&T for information on iPhone data use but was turned down, with a company spokesman saying that “for competitive reasons, we do not disclose the usage of our iPhone customers." So the magazine went to Validas, which has access to 100,000 wireless bills from individual customers and businesses who voluntarily upload their electronic bills forcost-cutting recommendations. For this study, Validas analyzed data usage on nearly 14,000 individual consumer wireless accounts, including 757 iPhone and 783 Blackberry customers.

[L00i3]

Yay!! I'm above average. 12 days left in the billing cycle, and I'm at 315.25MB.

[RonHC]

mine keeps reseting so i dont know

[cssoz]

im around 195mb last month

[Mp3]

I send 124mb and received 740mb last month. All on the $10 data plan too.

[The Maestro]

273? Psshhh
I do that in a day
One of my busy days >

[battlecrushr]

^+1

[tudtran]

I send 124mb and received 740mb last month. All on the $10 data plan too.

$10 data plan? How can I do that

[youngbrammer]

Yeah, really. 273 MB is a joke for a month let alone 53 MB! I do 53 MB every single night before I go to bed! My average is around 4-5 GB per month... Last month was 4.5 (if I can convert KB to GB correctly) GB and and this month (7 days according to my AT&T bill), I'm at 1.15 GB.

It'd be less if my 3G service wasn't faster than my home internet...

[LastSonOfKrypton]

WELL if I had 3G it'd be a different story, I'm lucky to use 100Mb/month!

[holdemdogg]

I use about 2 GB a month

[MikeYuse0406]

I still have 9 days left on my billing cycle and have already used a little over 1.2 GB on my 3GS. When I had my 3G, my normal use was between 500MB and 1GB per billing cycle.

[Happy Noodle Boy]

My monthly use is about 1-2 gigs/month but I'm literally at this point attached to the phone so it doesn't feel like much.

[hollow0]

yeah, that 200 ish mb is nothing. But i guess those user don't use their phones as much. My average is about 3Gb a month. Just imagine how it's going to be when AT&T's network increases to 7.2!

[AMohamud]

Lol. I use 3.5+ gigs of data every month. I'm a highschool student. I couldn't survive math class without playing on my iPhone. My foreign parents who don't even know how to utilize half of the iPhone's potential use at least 1.5 gigs/month.

[hnic247]

O really well there must be something wrong with me I use 10-14 gb per month..mostly music..I use mywi for my laptop and home computer..it's stupid to pay for Internet on either if AT&T is going to let me use unlimited data.

[GTOpilot]

162,000kb or 158 meg here.

One Iphone and my two sons phones which have unlimited data as well.

[ZOMGVTEK]

I generally download 10-20GB a month, according to my ATT bill.

There is 5 iPhone's on my family plan... Everyone uses over 5GB a month, one of my brothers just made a new record at 23GB last month.

Im surprised ATT didn't get pissed yet, this has been going on for months. We didn't break over 100GB total yet, maybe this cycle we will...

[kingboarder]

Lol. I use 3.5+ gigs of data every month. I'm a highschool student. I couldn't survive math class without playing on my iPhone. My foreign parents who don't even know how to utilize half of the iPhone's potential use at least 1.5 gigs/month.

Agreed.....
couldn't do my every-day college life without my iPhone!!
Mostly around 2-3gigs/month...except for my Miami vacation that was around 10 because I had 7.2Mbps..that was sweet

some food for thought about the whole Verizon - AT&T coverage thing:
I got 3G everywhere I go with my iPhone here in Louisville, KY but my brother is mostly on 1x with his Palm Pre Plus and Verizon......

[TranceField]

Heh, I average about 1.5 to 2GB a month :P and it looks like this month will be over 3GB. Most of the time I just use my iPhone to browse the net instead of turning my pc or laptop on... because I find it more covenant