Half of Australians are hitting their mobile data limits each month

Almost half of all Australians are almost maxing out their mobile data each month – we’re talking up to 60GB – according to comparison site Finder.

Finder’s research found that 46 per cent use up all, or nearly all, of their mobile data per month on their smartphones.

Today the average mobile plan includes 60GB of included data and we’re consistently burning through nearly all of it – that’s a cumulative total of 536,094 terabytes of mobile data per month.

One in six (16 per cent) completely exhaust their mobile data each month and 23 per cent just don’t know how much data is included in their plans.

A further 30 per cent don’t use all their data – but most of it.

Australians rely pretty heavily on their smartphone to stay connected, to share and consume content on social media and to stream movies and TV shows.

In the June 2021 quarter, customers downloaded an average 9.8 million terabytes – that’s an extra 1.6 million terabytes compared to the previous year.

That adds up to a 16 per cent increase in data usage in one year.

On average, Australians’ mobile plans offer 60GB of data with 32 per cent on unlimited data plans which have a set amount of data that can be used at full speed with the data over this limit throttled back to much slower speeds.

And 23 per cent didn’t even know how much data they were working with.

So what can you do to save your mobile data?

Here are Finder’s tip to avoid maxing out your mobile data allowance:

– Wi-Fi is your friend. Latch onto fixed-line connections or free data hotspots whenever you can. This should completely prevent any data consumption while you’re connected. This is especially useful if your home internet plan has unlimited data.
– Disable background data. Many apps run in the background by default, refreshing feeds and sending notifications without you opening them. Disabling this feature in your app settings will prevent unnecessary downloads.
– Lower streaming quality. Stepping down from HD to SD can save you gigabytes per hour on Netflix, for example.
– Monitor usage. Many providers offer free data-monitoring apps. These give an up-to-date breakdown of your current usage. We’ll go into more detail on how this works further below.