Average monthly usage for American users?

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TheInfernal

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The Egyptian minister of communications is forcing a "Fair usage internet policy" on all ISPs in Egypt, with a 10% cap on the capability of the lines (a 2mbps connection will have a 60GB cap and no alternatives).
In his attempts to spread his propaganda on how it will improve the quality of service and ridicule the 50,000 protesters on facebook, he claimed the average monthly internet usage in the US (which isn't really the best example) is only 2GB/month.
So can anyone verify these claims. And if they are not true, what are the real numbers?


He also claims that once you reach the quota in foreign countries, they disconnect you. But because he is a nice person, they will only reduce the speeds to 128kb/s in Egypt.
 
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On average I wouldn't be surprised if it is 2GB/month..but on this forum? Not even close. You have to remember that we're in a very small minority. The vast majority aren't "power users" like we are.
 
um....last time i checked i used around 300Gb/mo downstream (give or take 20Gb's....its been a few months ago)....didnt bother to look at upstream but it isnt much...

not consistently mind you....one month was that big, the next might be only 150Gb.....but yeah, i pay an additional monthly fee for a 20 megabit line with a 1.5 megabit upload for a reason, and luckily i have one of those smaller ISP's that doesn't really bother much with harassing people and doesnt have caps :)
 
By 2010, the average household will be using 1.1 terabytes (roughly equal to 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica) of bandwidth a month, according to an estimate by the Internet Innovation Alliance in Washington, D.C. At that level, it says, 20 homes would generate more traffic than the entire Internet did in 1995.
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/produc...0-internet-broadband-traffic-jam_N.htm?csp=15

not sure how true that is.

I currently use between 350 and 500gb a month but thats including IPTV ( and i don't live in the us :rolleyes:)
 
2 gigs per month sounds easily plausible. You have to consider when they say "Average"...they're talking about everyone...including older people/senior citizens, single people or couples living at home without kids, etc. There are people out there who barely turn their computer on once a week for an hour to do some very basic e-mailing and maybe a little surfing.
 
I downloaded 32GB's in the last day(24 hours)(my torrent drive is a 640 WD Black, hehe)

The average user, probably, .5 - 3GB a month.
 
I average around 25GB per month, but my wife and I stream a number of TV shows or movies off Netflix, we both play games online, my kid does also. Plus I will purchase music off Amazon and iTunes. There are a few shows I am watching using Hulu instead. So according to Untangle I am using on average around 25GB of data per month.
 
2GB is ridiculous.... You'd have to pause your WIN7 Technet download and resume it next month...
 
2GB is totally doable. I was able to live off of 1GB (my data plan cap) for a few months using the EVDO connection on my blackberry via bluetooth DUN. people who just do some "web surfing" and mostly use office apps, read their e-mail a bit, and look at a few youtube vids won't hit 2GB.
 
vischo said:
2GB is ridiculous.... You'd have to pause your WIN7 Technet download and resume it next month...
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For the "Average American user"? I doubt 1% of all internet users in the US are downloading Win7.

"Average American User"...take a survey of the 100 houses surrounding yours....look at the people who live there. Retired people, older couples, couples without kids....people who might turn on their PC for an hour or two per week to check their AOL.

There's a difference between the average American user (you have to count the entire population that has some form of internet connection), and the average members of a computer tech forum. ;)
 
TheInfernal said:
According to wikipedia, the average monthly internet usage in the US is between 5.3GB and 7.9GB. So either wikipedia is correct, or the Egyptian minister is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_traffic#Amount_of_traffic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users
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That's still only a fraction of that 60 gig cap. Whether he's right or wrong, it still remains that a 60 gig cap is plenty for the average user, and even still adequate for many power users. Also, is that traffic amount limited to home users, or does it include commercial use, businesses, schools, etc?

Though, I'm not a fan of that whole 'force everybody to a 60 gig cap' idea. If somebody wants more bandwidth, they should be able to pay for more.

I personally that rather than using flat-rate packaging, ISPs should offer tiered services. Something along the lines of if you want a 40 gig connection, it's a cheaper price. 80 gig is somewhat more, and 160 gig is somewhat more than that. That way the people who don't use the internet as frequently don't have to pay as much as the people who use their connection to bits.

Think about mobile phone service. It wouldn't be fair for someone who uses 200 minutes a month pay the same as a family of 5 who uses 1500 minutes a month. The same thing can be applied to internet. Allow basic service for basic users, and premium service for premium users.
 
The new decision issued by the government forces the same rates and caps to all ISPs in Egypt, including a company almost entirely owned by the government that owns 70% of the user-base.
http://www.tedata.net/web/eg/en/default.aspx?sec=3&pr=2
That's still only a fraction of that 60 gig cap. Whether he's right or wrong, it still remains that a 60 gig cap is plenty for the average user, and even still adequate for many power users.
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So why would I pay $40 for a 2mbps connection with a 10% cap on its capacity, and then if I reach it I'd be stuck at 6% its speed for the rest of the month? In the past I could download 100% the capacity with no problem, and the ISP was never bothered with that. If I'm only downloading 60GB/month I would be subscribing to a lousy 512kbps connection instead. Hey wait...512kbps now has a 25GB cap.

It's not our fault the average user consumes less than these caps. Actually if this means anything, it would be the average user only consumes 1-2% his available bandwidth and there's a lot of overhead for heavy users.
Also, is that traffic amount limited to home users, or does it include commercial use, businesses, schools, etc?
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Yes. Apparently they will have to have a separate DSL line for each computer. Or get a 24mbps connection with a half-decent 250GB cap for only $350/month.
Though, I'm not a fan of that whole 'force everybody to a 60 gig cap' idea. If somebody wants more bandwidth, they should be able to pay for more.
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I can subscribe to several DSL lines simultaneously, so when one reaches the cap I use another. Or pay $350 monthly for a 24mbps connection with a 250GB cap. Remember my $40 2mbps could theoretically download 663GB/month.

I personally that rather than using flat-rate packaging, ISPs should offer tiered services. Something along the lines of if you want a 40 gig connection, it's a cheaper price. 80 gig is somewhat more, and 160 gig is somewhat more than that. That way the people who don't use the internet as frequently don't have to pay as much as the people who use their connection to bits.
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We already had 'limited internet' for much cheaper prices. What happened is they also put a 10% cap on 'unlimited' internet plans under the name of 'fair usage'. And the government did this, not a company run by a monkey.
 
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Currently averaging 98GB per month for the last six months according to pfsense.
 
I would say that the 2gb per month is a low number as well I know I'll use close to that just on my data plan for my cell phone as far as my home usage havent checked but between myself and 2 other house mates we are constantly streaming video or d/ling music etc.
 
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