Monthly data usage has increased 6% from 2023 for all Verizon home internet technologies, according to the 2024 Verizon Consumers Connection report. Usage now is at 656 Gbps, up from the 2023 figure of 621 Gbps.
Data usage is growing, in no small part, due to the large number of devices in use in the typical home. According to Verizon, the average number of connected devices per household is 18, while nearly half (45%) of all homes have at least one smart home device. One fifth own a smart doorbell, while 16% have a smart thermostat.
Another reason for the data usage growth is the continued proliferation of online shopping. According to Verizon, nearly one quarter (23%) of purchases were made online last year. The growing online purchases aren’t all pure e-commerce plays; a growing number are hybrid, with ordering online and picking up at the store, a trend that grew 5.5% since the 2023 report. However, customers over 55 years of age still showed a strong preference for in-store shopping.
Naturally, a high percentage of online orders (either pure e-commerce or hybrid) took place during the holiday shopping season, but it isn’t just shopping that helped drive usage of connected devices over the holidays.
According to the Verizon report, there was an average of 17.7 Gbps of mobile device usage at airports in the U.S. during the holiday season — enough to stream the movie Elf 36 million times — with video accounting for a little more than one quarter (28%) of the data usage at airports. In addition to video, there were 106.8 million calls made from airports, totaling 273.2 million minutes.
In Verizon’s coverage of sports-related wireless phone usage, they reported that total mobile usage at NFL stadiums last season reached nearly 960 TB, an increase of 37% over the previous year.