OVBI: Subscriber Speed Increases Driving Higher Median Broadband Usage

OpenVault: 22% of subscribers would benefit from speed tier upgrade

The migration to faster speed tiers is driving higher levels of broadband usage across all subscribers, according to the 2Q 2021 OVBI (OpenVault Broadband Insights) report. The report was issued today by OpenVault, a market-leading source of SaaS-based revenue and network improvement solutions and data-driven insights for the broadband industry.

In 2Q21, two key metrics – the percentage of subscribers provisioned for gigabit speeds and those provisioned for speeds of 100 Mbps or less – moved sharply in opposite directions. The 10.5% of subscribers provisioned for 1 Gbps or higher was more than double the 4.8% figure only a year earlier, while the percentage of subscribers provisioned for speeds of 100 Mbps or less fell by half, from 39.9% in 2Q20 to 20.1% through the same period.

At the same time, year-over-year growth of median usage across both usage-based billing (UBB) and flat-rate billing (FRB) subscribers jumped 22.7%, from 223.3 GB in 2Q20 to 274.0 GB in the second quarter of this year. The rate of increase was more than 64% greater than the growth in average usage during the same period, indicating that increased consumption is occurring across the subscriber base as a whole, rather than being concentrated among a few customers. 

OpenVault analysis suggests that almost 22% of subscribers would be well-served by upgrading their speeds. 

Among other findings from OpenVault’s analysis of 2Q21 data patterns:

• Monthly weighted average usage – including both usage-based billing (UBB) and flat-rate billing (FRB) subscribers – was 433.5 GB, maintaining the trend of 14+% year-over-year growth evident in 1Q21, while exhibiting a quarter-to-quarter decline of 6% that is consistent with historic patterns.
  
  
• The percentage of subscribers using 500 GB or more increased 2.7%, from 28.2% in 2Q20 to 31.9% in 2Q21. Usage at the bottom end of the scale – 0-100 GB – fell 4.7 %, from 34.2% to 29.5%.
  
  
• With 10.5% of subscribers provisioned for 1Gbps service and 10.8% consuming 1 terabyte or more of data, 2Q21 marked the first time that both metrics simultaneously topped 10%.
  
  
• While power users (>1 TB of usage/month) and extreme powers users (>2 TB/month) grew nearly 24% and 50%, respectively, from 2Q20 to 2Q21, the increase was moderated in systems that employ UBB plans. Extreme power users grew at a rate that was 31% less in UBB systems in 2Q21, and FRB systems had more than 20% more extreme power users on their networks by the end of the quarter.

“With both median usage growth exceeding average usage growth and upstream usage growth exceeding downstream usage growth, the impact on the network is far reaching and not driven by just a few subscribers or just by applications like streaming alone,” the report states. “Network operators will continue to be challenged to manage their networks as they strive to balance higher usage with better customer experiences.” 

Source: OpenVault Solutions media announcement