Owners of smart phones are consuming about 50 per cent more data on their wireless plans than they did just last year, according to an upcoming study. And that may lead to rising wireless bills, now that AT&T has put data limits on its iPhone plans and Verizon has said it may follow suit.
The study—from Validas, a company that provides Web-based wireless bill analysis and optimization services to consumers and businesses—is based on 20,000 consumer wireless bills dated between January and May 2010.
In a press release with some preliminary findings, Validas reports the average smart phone user consumed 146 MB per month in 2010, up from 97 MB a month in comparable figures from last year.
Data usage on iPhones was up by less than the average. It jumped by 25 per cent, from the 273 MB average the company reported for last year to 338 MB this year. But data consumption by Verizon smart-phone owners rose more—by an amazing 193 percent. At 421 MB per month on average, Verizon smart phone users actually outdid iPhone owners for data use during the survey period.
The biggest data users were also bigger eaters at Verizon. More than 11 percent of Verizon smartphone users gorged on 500 MB to 1 GB per month, compared with just 5.6 percent of iPhone users, says Validas. About four percent of the Verizon users devour more than 2 GB, versus only 1.6 percent of iPhone users.
The escalating Verizon figures may speak to the company's spate of sophisticated new smart phones. Validas didn't release the underlying study data or details about the phones used, but the Verizon data is likely mostly from users of new Android and Windows-based devices, say Ed Finegold, Executive Vice President-Analytics for Validas.
Whatever the reasons, the surge may foreshadow the expected move by Verizon away from unlimited data service to the kind of limited billing AT&T put in place in June.
On the plus side for Verizon customers, we haven't heard any reports of the Verizon network being overburdened, at least yet, by this bigger-than-iPhone data usage. That may undercut the argument that no other carrier can be compared to AT&T for data load because no others experience the levels imposed by iPhone owners.
For iPhone users, however, the latest data seems to heighten concern that the customer savings from AT&T's new pricing (which we confirmed for many users, based on the 2009 data) may be fleeting, or at least dwindling, because of ever-rising data usage.
For example, 52 percent of iPhones consumed less than 200 MB per month in the latest study, down significantly from 63 percent last year. That's also a lot lower than the 65 percent that AT&T reported only two months ago, when it talked about how much the new data-rationed plans would save its customers.
AT&T's 200 MB data plan costs $15. If you go above that, you have to pay another $15 for 200 MB more—which erases the promised savings compared with the old $30 per month for unlimited data. Alternatively, AT&T told us, those who are approaching 200 MB for the month could opt to switch mid-month to the new $25-a-month plan with a hefty 2GB monthly limit, for a savings of $5 a month over the current unlimited plan.
—Jeff Blyskal
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