http://www.realcleartechnology.com/a...usage_438.html
Web users in North America have a large and growing appetite for data consumption, according to a new report from Sandvine. The report is interesting not just for the obvious insight that we're gobbling up more data (39 percent more than the first half of last year), but for the insight it sheds on what we're doing online.
Here's what they found: the mean monthly data consumption in North America was 44.7GB. We're using about 6GB of data for upstream activitity (i.e. uploads) and 38.6GB of downstream bandwidth.
Not surprisingly "real-time entertainment" -- principally streaming video -- is eating up our bandwidth, accounting for 68 percent of downstream data during peak periods. Web browsing is a distant second with 12.8 percent. As far as upstream data use, file-sharing holds the crown with 39.6 percent of all data use.
"Netflix continues to be the unchallenged leader for traffic, accounting for 32.3 percent of downstream traffic during peak period," Sandvine noted. Other services such as Amazon (with 1.31 percent) and HBO Go (0.34 percent) saw their shares decline in a greater amount than that of Netflix. YouTube, however, has been surging -- last year it gobbled up 13.8 percent of downstream traffic and now it accounts for 17.1 percent.
Meanwhile, BitTorrent traffic continues to delcine. It now accounts for just 9.2 percent of traffic during peak period and 11.1 percent of total daily traffic, which Sandvine said "demonstrates a sharp decline in share, as just 18 months ago BitTorrent accounted for 18.9 percent of total daily traffic in North America."
Here's what they found: the mean monthly data consumption in North America was 44.7GB. We're using about 6GB of data for upstream activitity (i.e. uploads) and 38.6GB of downstream bandwidth.
Not surprisingly "real-time entertainment" -- principally streaming video -- is eating up our bandwidth, accounting for 68 percent of downstream data during peak periods. Web browsing is a distant second with 12.8 percent. As far as upstream data use, file-sharing holds the crown with 39.6 percent of all data use.
"Netflix continues to be the unchallenged leader for traffic, accounting for 32.3 percent of downstream traffic during peak period," Sandvine noted. Other services such as Amazon (with 1.31 percent) and HBO Go (0.34 percent) saw their shares decline in a greater amount than that of Netflix. YouTube, however, has been surging -- last year it gobbled up 13.8 percent of downstream traffic and now it accounts for 17.1 percent.
Meanwhile, BitTorrent traffic continues to delcine. It now accounts for just 9.2 percent of traffic during peak period and 11.1 percent of total daily traffic, which Sandvine said "demonstrates a sharp decline in share, as just 18 months ago BitTorrent accounted for 18.9 percent of total daily traffic in North America."
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