Our data usage in the past year has increased by almost 25 per cent thanks to the rise in home and video streaming that change the way we communicate and access our entertainment.
According to NBN Co, the data consumption has increased by nearly a quarter with the average Australian now consuming about 285GB of data per month or making 367 hours of video calls in the same period.
These key network insights show Australians are hungry for content with more than 1.35 billion GB of data consumed in June this year alone.
That’s the equivalent of watching the popular David Attenborough Planet Earth documentary in high definition 30.6 million times.
It’s no surprise that video streaming is also dominating our data consumption thanks to services like Netflix, Stan, Disney+ and Apple TV+.
In fact, video streaming now consumes more data than our other popular online habit – web browsing which is now in second place.
New South Wales consumed the most data and saw the largest year-on-year increase in consumption jumping by 31.2 per cent.
The Queensland were the hungriest for data with the average Queenslander using 274GB data a month.
The hungriest customer is a Queenslander who consumed 26,807GB in June 2019 alone.
Holiday periods also saw a jumping data consumption with holidays spent online.
Wednesdays and Sundays were also the busiest days on the NBN.
“Whether it is at home or at work, Australian’s are consuming more data than ever before,” says Ray Owen, NBN Co chief technology officer.
“Access to fast broadband services is driving a change in the way we interact online, especially as connected devices, streaming services, and flexible working arrangements become the norm.
“We expect these numbers to continue to grow as more and more homes and business connect to the network.”
Here are some other remarkable NBN stats:
– These insights were drawn from active services on the NBN access network across Australia. The information used for the June 2019 period.
– Total data usage – 1,359,111,574GB or 1.35EBs.
– NBN average data consumption per end user, in June 2019: 258GB (up from 207GBs year on year). Data consumption increased by 24.6 per cent year on year.
– Average metro/non-metro breakdown of total data consumption 2019 (per cent) – 52/48.
– NSW consumed the most data of any state; following population size. However, Queenslanders on average, consumed more data that their counterparts – consuming on average 274 GB per end user in June 2019.
– NSW also saw the greatest year-on-year increase in data consumption, growing by 20.7 per cent (from 208 gigabytes to 251 GB per end user).
– Tasmanians were the least data hungry in June consuming on average 231 GB per end user in the month.
– As a state, Victoria consumes the second largest amount of data. In addition, four out of the top 20 individual consumers also live in the garden state.
“Australia’s hunger for data continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount of modern technology in most Australian homes today – including smart home entertainment systems, subscription video on demand (SVOD), broadcast video on demand (BVOD) gaming consoles, computers and tablets,” says Foad Fadaghi, Telstye managing director.
“The domestic market for Internet of Things at Home (IoT@Home) is forecast to reach $5.3 billion by 2023, and more than half of the households in Australia have already started their smart home journey with at least one IoT@Home product installed at the end of last year.
“NBN has emerged as the most important IoT@Home related feature when Australians move into a new home, which reflects how data and connectivity have taken a priority in our daily lives.”
