... [+]In the Before Times, the amount of data my wife and I used with our Comcast internet account was relatively modest. We’re cord-cutters, and have been since 2013, and for the past several years we averaged around 300-400 gigabits each month. Streaming TV was easily the biggest contributor to those numbers.
But things have changed. As I began work on the 2021 edition of my annual guide to cord cutting – part 1 debuts in the March 2 issue of my– I discovered that our household data usage has jumped dramatically. Looking back over the past 6 months – which is as far back as Comcast’s usage meter shows – we’ve ranged from around 500 GB to as much as 670 GB.Forbes screenshot
Much of the increase comes from the fact that we’re home all the time. My wife is a psychotherapist, and in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has closed her office and now conducts all her sessions via video or phone. I’m also working from home, and though my activities don’t match hers in terms of data, I’m definitely contributing to the increase.
I’m not alone. Internet providers both big and small report that traffic on their networks has jumped since the United States began responding to the COVID-19 threat with lockdowns and recommendations to work and learn from home if possible. In the first months of the pandemic, for example, Comcast reported
and an 11 percent increase in downloads. And an AT&T spokesperson told me that the company’s entire network – internet, mobile, Voice Over IP traffic and more – has seen an overall 40 percent increase.