Data Consumption at-Home is Probably Not Up as Much as You Might Think

Stay-at-home rules likely have not increased total data usage as much as you might think. 

This chart showing at-home internet access usage suggests the stay-at-home orders have led to an increase in data consumption, as average at-home usage is up 38 percent overall. 

source: Statista

But Cisco predicted there would be about a 50 percent growth in mobile data consumption between 2019 and 2020 in any case.

source: Cisco

The baseline for fixed network global IP traffic growth tends to run about 24 percent annually. Cisco has estimated global consumption growth rates growth rates of as high as 53 percent. 

The point is that the Covid-19 impact on data consumption is more subtle than one might presuppose. Normal growth over a single year would be expected to boost data consumption between 24 percent and 50 percent, as a base case. 

To be sure, at-home data usage is up. But mobile consumption and consumption at business, office, factory, entertainment venues and schools is down. Total consumption therefore is likely fairly nuanced.