Broadband consumption experienced a milestone during the third quarter of the year as upstream traffic increased two times as fast as downstream traffic, according to OpenVault.
The firm found that year-over-year upstream traffic increased 13.9%, while downstream increased by 6.8%. Overall traffic growth was 7.2%, according to the OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report.
The trend of upstream outpacing downstream traffic is well established and consistent with the evolution of end point-generated content. OpenVault said that, with the exception of the COVID-19 era, downstream usage has consistently gone down annually and upstream has increased. Indeed, downstream traffic growth was the lowest since OpenVault began recording that number in 2017.
Overall usage has continued to rise, of course.
At least some of the upstream growth may be explained by a small group of users. In May, OVBI reported that “extreme power users” – those totaling of 5 TB or more – used almost 1 TB upstream. Overall usage by this group rose 57% year-over-year. Other levels of the power user category also showed gains.
It is especially important for cable operators to pay attention to this trend since their networks historically struggle with bidirectional traffic because their heritage is the broadcast model that prioritizes the downstream.
Upstream Broadband Traffic
“Addressing upstream constraints within the DOCSIS environment will be essential as subscriber behavior evolves, putting added pressure on networks,” the report said.
“With upstream data usage now growing at more than twice the rate of downstream usage, the need for ongoing monitoring and network adaptability to maintain high Quality of Experience amid rising demand is crucial.”
Other findings of note in the report:
- Households with annual incomes of less than $50,000 had the highest average monthly data usage (639 GB)–despite having the slowest average Internet speeds of 530 Mbps.
- Consumption and speeds ranged from 397 GB and 578 Mbps for a single-person household, to 1.125 TB and 833 Mbps for a household of four.
- Speeds and subscriber behavior were consistent between urban and rural markets. This demonstrates the impact of providers’ rural upgrades.
