http://www.mobidia.com/admin/news/43.pdf

That is basically saying for an average person they need a 2GB plan if the average usage in the UK is around a GB to give them a little leeway when they use more a month.

I thought it was a interesting read honestly so figured I would post for guys to have a read.

There's a bit of an issue of cause and effect in these statistics. As I read it, it doesn't give any indication of whether people use more data after moving to 4G, it's simply comparing average 3G use and 4G use. Surely, the real reason for the difference is that typically the sort of person who signs up for 4G is more likely to consume data than those who don't.

True enough I just thought it was an interesting report to show what the average LTE user uses across the globe and how more more mature LTE countries have a higher average usage.

There are reports from every single operator worldwide of data usage increasing after people move to 4G tariffs.

But that's not what the article said. By how much is this reported increase in data usage that you refer to ? I certainly haven't used any more because it's 4G, it's really a totally irrelevant issue as far as I am concerned. I have had it for 18 months and I can honestly say I'm never even aware of when I'm connected via 4G, I never bother to look at the display. For the first couple of weeks sure, my data usage went up , but for no other reason than the novelty value was causing me to run lots of speed tests. In fact I have both EE 4G and Three 3G and quite often I find if I am struggling with internet response on my EE phone it works fine if I tether it to my Three phone. IMO 4G is a case of the emperors new clothes.

One of the reasons why you might use more data on 4G is that you probably wont be struggling for internet response when you are on it, when it's a fast and seamless experience, you forget that you are on data and you use your phone in any way you want to.

I've struggled to stream 360p video over 3G, now I can stream 720p on 4G. I can skip tracks quickly and listen to the highest quality music on streaming services. Skyping on 3G used to be bad poor quality on 3g, now on 4G it looks great and it's obviously using more data. I no longer want to shoot myself waiting for instagram/vine content to load.

Basically, if you do things on the internet and your 3G isn't always 5mbps+, 4G will benefit you.

In my office 3G is congested on Three - often so slow facebook/twitter etc time out. Voda and O2 are GPRS only and Voda's doesn't pass any data, O2 is about 14.4kbps dialup. EE's 3G is usable, but often you have to try things twice, or wait a while.

EE 4G is amazing as everything is instant, just like at home on WiFi - but speeds aren't fast (I've see 6megabit on speedtest) but for twitter/facebook and email its great and responsive.

I used to use around 1GB a month on a 3g tarrif, and now use just around 1.5 to 1.8GB a month. Don't really use video, just lots of photos I guess, and probably too much use of speedtest

Vodafone said in March, a UK consumer 3G to 4G handset upgrade showed a 2.3x data usage uplift. Might be a bit higher for Voda as they are bundling content with 4G.

Given Voda's pretty slow 3G until the upgrades, not surprising their users are using more on 4G - the connected services now work!

I tend to use about 600 MB, but then I don't tend to watch any videos over 3G

On Three I used 4.4GB last month, and I didnt stream a single program/film on either my phone or when tethered.

Oh, and what type of average did they use?

If the 'average' user data usage is so low, it makes you wonder why some networks constantly seem to go to the effort and expense of reducing / introducing FUP's or have to throttle data at peak times, since the majority of subscribers seemingly use so little data - why so much angst over a tiny few percent who occasionally go over this figure, (and no i'm not talking about the ones constantly using 100gb's a month......)

I remember in 2010, I signed up to Orange Mobile Broadband 10GB allowance Sim for £25 a month as it was (back then) the highest allowance offered on any mobile network, very soon after I signed up it was withdrawn and the packages given animal names with much reduced data allowances, anyway when I enquired as to why it had been removed, I was told because it was getting oversubscribed very quickly, which seems strange, given that statistics like these, even 4 years on, would seem to indicate that very few subscribers use or need that much data......

Spread out evenly across the network it wouldn't be an issue. A few heavy users in one location can really spoil the service for all (if not controlled carefully).

They obviously didn't include me in the statistics then, or the average would have been much lower