Cisco releases broadband usage study

Cisco: Average Connection Consumes 11.4 GB Per Month [Broadband Reports]

If you're downloading more than 11.4 gigabytes each month on your broadband connection, you're consuming more than the average broadband user, according to a recent study released by Cisco. Aggregating anonymous customer data from a range of ISPs worldwide, Cisco tracked and compiled several interesting statistics that are fairly revealing when it comes to broadband usage.

P2P usage is actually down as a percentage of all broadband traffic from 50 percent in an earlier study, to 38 percent today. The reduced P2P usage may be a function of the increased stigma among broadband users of using the protocol to download illegally copied materials, a result of the recent Swedish court battle against top P2P tracking site The Pirate Bay or simply a larger proportional increase in other network traffic.

There are large disparities in the amount broadband users download. The top 10 percent of broadband downloaders account for 60 percent of all broadband usage, and the top 1 percent consume 20 percent of network resources. On average, an individual broadband user downloads around 11.4 GB each month. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of the size of  5-7 digitized feature length movies or well over 3,000 music files.

Cisco's study also revealed that there is an Internet "prime time." Twenty five percent of all Internet traffic occurs in the four-hour period between 9pm and 1am in the prevailing local time zone. During peak Internet usage, traffic exceeds non-peak usage times by 20 percent.

Comments

[Rob Jones]

Don't forget about the game demos that can be downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace or the PSN. Each one of those demos is about 1GB.

I don't think the study takes into account that there are those of us who know how to use the Internet effectively. And that doesn't mean we're doing anything illegal.

My game demos use to come on a DVD with a magazine, now I download them. My movies used to come on a DVD from BlockBuster, now I download them. My software used to come on a CD from a store, now I download them. My TV shows used to over cable, now I download them. My music used to come on DCs from the music store, now I download them. I used to write letters and talk on the phone, now I email and video chat. All of this using the internet in a completely legal fashion.

And microsoft has recently announced Games on Demand, 2 or 3 full game downloads and you're over 12GB.

We are not using consuming excessive amounts of the internet, we are using it in a way that everyone else will eventually. We are ahead of the curve, not abusers. When everyone else catches up to how we use the internet we will have found new and interesting uses for it that those people aren't.

It's those average users that are paying way to much for an internet service that they are barely using.