Verizon Wireless Smart Phones Consume Most Data, iPhone Still Dominates

By now, we’re all aware of the rumors saying Apple’s iPhone will make its way to Verizon Wireless around the beginning of next year. While it would appear that doing so would mean the iPhone would get a superior carrier that would be free of the problems that have plagued AT&T, many have wondered whether or not Verizon would suffer the same troubles after experiencing heavier data loads. Well, one study finds that Verizon is already carrying a heavy data load per user.

Validas, which is set to release a full study on wireless data consumption in September, recently released some teaser information. Included in this preview is the finding that Verizon Wireless currently has a mean data usage per user of 147.2 MB, up 48.2 MB last year – the largest increase of any carrier. In addition, the study finds that 42.9 percent of its lines have data usage plans, up from 33.4 percent a year ago.

AT&T was ahead of Verizon by a nose, with a mean usage per user of 149.6, up from 111.9 MB. The carrier can boast that 71.2 percent of its users have data usage plans, up from 58.4 percent last year.

Sprint was third with a mean data usage per user of 133.4 MB, down from 166.5 MB. This is due to an increase in the percentage of users consuming 50 MB or less per month.

T-Mobile was fourth with a mean data usage per user of 120.6 MB, up from 44.6 MB. However, there was no growth in the number of its lines with data usage plans.

Validas finds that data users account for 53 percent of all subscribers, up from 42 percent in 2009. The mean MB usage per user rose to 145.8 MB from 96.8 MB last year.

New smart phones, not counting iPhones and BlackBerrys, drove the biggest increases in data usage, with an increased mean consumption per user of 415 MB, up from 139 MB.

Feature phone users are also getting more into data usage, as data usage among these users reached 36.7 percent, up from 27.3 percent last year, with a mean data consumption of 67.9 MB, up from 46.1 MB.

Aircards are a heavy source of data usage, as the mean data usage consumption among users of aircards grew 8 percent to 1,485.2 MB. Verizon aircard/laptop card users saw the biggest increase in mean usage per user with 1.6 GB, up from 1.25 GB.

Not to be ignored, the iPhone still managed to grab one big headline this past week, as Chitka found that 50 percent of the 9 million iPhones tracked by the company now run the one-month-old iOS 4.

Sources:

http://blog.myvalidas.com/index.php/2010/07/verizon-wireless-smartphones-consume-more-data-than-iphones/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20011628-37.html