Broadband Insights Report: Demand Still Above Pre-COVID Levels

Key findings in the OpenVault Broadband Insight Report for the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20):

• Consumers are continuing to increase reliance on upstream bandwidth and are opting for faster speeds to meet dramatically changed usage habits. Upstream consumption rose 5.3% from the end of Q1 to the end of Q2, likely reflecting increased use of videoconferencing for business, educational and lifestyle purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The upstream rise continued even though overall usage actually declined by 5.5% during the same period. Upstream consumption is up 56% year-over-year through 2Q20.
• Demand for faster bandwidth tiers accelerated during the same period, as consumer usage increasingly extended across multiple devices simultaneously and operators offered complimentary speed upgrades and relaxed data ceilings. Nearly 5% of subscribers now receive connections of 1 gigabit or faster, up 133% year-over-year and up 75% in the last six months alone. About 61% of all subscribers now have connections of 100 Mbps or faster, a one-year increase of 27%.
• Consumption is well above pre-pandemic levels. Even though total average usage declined from 402 GB to 380 GB in 2Q20, consumption is still well above pre-pandemic levels and up nearly 36% from the average of 280 GB at the end of 2Q19.
• Usage-Based Billing (UBB) consumption increased. With usage quotas relaxed during the pandemic, consumption by subscribers on usage-based billing (UBB) plans increased nearly 42% year-over-year, from 262.9 GB in 2Q19 to 372.8 GB in 2Q20.