Top 1% of Mobile Users Use Half of World’s Wireless Bandwidth - NYTimes.com

Just one percent of mobile consumers use half of all bandwidth, reports Arieso, which also notes that the top 10 percent of users consume 90 percent of wireless bandwidth, according to a study of the habits of 1.1 million customers of a European mobile operator during a 24-hour period in November 2011. Extreme bandwidth users

The gap between extreme users and the rest of the population also is widening over time, according to Arieso. In 2009, the top three percent of heavy users generated 40 percent of network demand. Now, Arieso said, just three percent of users represent 70 percent of the traffic. Top 1% of Mobile Users Use Half of World’s Wireless Bandwidth

Video is a likely reason for the explosion of usage by the heaviest users.