Cisco slaughters the mobile data hog myth

Cisco's mobile data update, released on Tuesday, contains an interesting piece of information that should be borne in mind by those who like to talk about 'data hogs'.

According to Cisco's update, which also includes predictions about the explosion in mobile data use, the top one percent of mobile data subscribers generate over 20 percent of mobile data traffic. Note that these heavy users are the ones that operators use to justify their mobile data usage caps, arguing that such customers degrade the experience for ordinary users, who of course *never* use a lot of data, right?

Except, as Cisco points out, that top one percent was responsible for 30 percent of mobile data traffic one year ago. Similarly, the top 10 percent in terms of data usage now generates around 60 percent of mobile data traffic — one year ago, that figure was 70 percent.

As analyst Dean Bubley puts it:

Panic over — and any vendors still citing scaremongering 'data hog' slides at MWC will look rather silly. My view on the reason for this: a year ago, the semi-mythical 10 percent were almost all PC users with dongles. Now the smartphones have caught up a bit and evened things out.

I am very much looking to seeing those silly slides at Mobile World Congress. I am sure they will be there.