iGR Report: US Home Broadband and Wi-Fi Usage Forecast, 2015-2020

Average monthly broadband usage in US homes is 190 gigabytes per month, according to a new report from iGR Research. More than 95% of this traffic is video. “TV has become a personal activity,” said Iain Gillott, president of iGR research. “If you have four people in a household now, that means four times the data going in.” In the past all members of a four-person home might watch the same thing on the same TV set at the same time. But today, each family member may be watching his or her own Netflix or YouTube choice. Despite a wider range of choices, however, the amount of time household members watch TV hasn’t changed much, nor does iGR expect it to.

Households with higher-speed broadband connections don’t necessarily consume much more data than households with lower-speed connections. It’s a different story for households that upgrade from slow DSL connections, however. With a lower-speed broadband connection, households may only be able to view one or two simultaneous video streams, so when they upgrade to a higher-speed connection, their habits may change and data usage may increase.