Android phones are biggest bandwidth hogs

By on Dec 8, 2010 at 10:32 PM
mobile December 8, 2010

A study conducted recently by network technology firm Arieso showed that Android users move more data over cellular networks than any other group of smartphone users. The study mentions high-resolution cameras along with video recording and sharing capabilities as being among Android’s biggest bandwidth hogging features. Due to Android’s rapid growth, carriers find themselves struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing congestion on their networks. “Smartphone subscriptions are rising and so too is subscriber appetite for mobile data. It’s a trend that’s set to continue,” Arieso CTO Michael Flanagan told Reuters. The move to next-generation “4G” network technologies like WiMAX and LTE will help carriers accomodate the demand for data, but rolling out these new networks takes a tremendous amount of time and resources. Sprint began lighting up its WiMAX network last year but coverage is still very limited, and Verizon Wireless just flipped the switch on LTE in 38 cities, though it currently does not offer any LTE-compatible cell phones. AT&T and T-Mobile will not begin rolling out LTE until next year.

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  • Norm

    THIS IS A LIE! The crApple iphone is the biggest bandwidth hog. It’s been stated many times by reliable VZW employees to be true, including myself. DROID DOES!

    • VladimirPootin85

      THAT IS A LIE! your mom is the biggest bandwidth hog…..

    • http://twitter.com/ethanwc ethanwc

      Actually, my buddy was lookin at his data usage on VZW with Droid X. He used 550mb in two weeks. The constant streaming of the internet using widgets grabs more data than iPhone. I’m a heavy iPhone user, and I’m only averaging 350mb per month!

      • Anonymous

        Ive streamed 7GB over 3G Netflix in a 3 week timeframe. Bored at work.

  • Nsegal91

    iphone haters and their anger make me lol

    • BestBuyKnowItAll

      This site is pro everything Apple. They will post anything to make Apple and their GOD Steve Jobs look flawless. Pathetic nerds!!!

      • Goofan (aka Apple Hater)

        You are 100% right. We follow another god, Eric Schmidt and Google. You are a fellow Goofan (aka Apple Hater) and as such I love you and am proud of you!

      • Anonymous

        Goofan? Eeeww…so that means u are a fan o the ole baby batter huh? Like the spooge on the lips. Figures…I always knew Android fans were f@gs…

        F@ggy users for f@ggy phones….lol

  • Michael Scrip

    I don’t know how 4G is gonna help.

    It’s just gonna allow people to download more data faster.

    But watch out for overages!

    • Anonymous

      4G networks also increases network capacity 5x, so towers will be able to handle much more load. When AT&T and Verizon go full LTE each carrier will have capacity to handle every phone in the US without a problem and that will start a competition war with voice plans hitting rock button.

  • fsShariq

    Om Nom Nom Nom..

    Posted from my Nexus One!

  • Mike

    I’d be curious to see who uses data features more between iPhone and Android users. This is to say, if an iPhone and an Android went head to head, using the exact same data apps and features for a specific amount of time, which one would actually use more bandwidth.

    • Norm

      It would obviously be the iphone. DROID DOES not waste bandwidth. In fact I can run 30 data apps at the same time and only use 1/1000000000 of a GB of data per hour.

    • Anonymous

      Almost all android apps are web base so every time you fire up a app it’s using data, on the iPhone you only use data when a app needs it if it does.

      • KCRic

        You know this to be fact? Hmm, guess all my apps that run in airplane mode are still using data 5 miles in the air.

      • Anonymous

        Ether that or they’re getting live updates from the server via Majic carpet lol.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/William-Diaz/100000639956723 William Diaz

    I call bullshit… iPhone is the biggest hog, because people are ALWAYS doing something on them. The only reason Android is being called a hog is because there are more of them then iPhones and of course, when there are more, there is going to be more resources used. This is NOT a fair assessment of bandwidth comparison use.

    • Michael Scrip

      Then there’s this:

      “A study from wireless billing vendor Validas has revealed that Verizon Wireless smartphone owners are now exceeding the data usage of iPhone owners, who are currently restricted to AT&T. According to the study, average data consumption on Verizon smartphones is 421 MB as opposed to 338 MB on the iPhone.

      • zukidrvr

        Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM stated last year that all wireless networks will be completely clogged with data by 2012 unless manufacturers start implementing some form of data compression. He also said that femtocells, wifi offloading and 4G will not be the answer. The demand will continue to outstrip the wireless spectrum capacity.

        Looks like the prediction is coming true…

    • Anonymous

      life-blogging doesn’t use that much data.

  • reynn

    I can believe this; higher mp camera = more data; also androids better browser and the increase in quality applications make android a data fiend. but its a good thing.

    • Anonymous

      Androids browser sucks

    • Anonymous

      Megapixels don’t mean anything. It’s the sensor that matters. My ip4 takes 4-5mb pics.

      • Anonymous

        Way to utterly miss the point because you were so busy defending your iPhone. The higher megapixels means the file sizes are bigger, which is relevant when uploading files to Photobucket, Picasa, or wherever else.

        Seriously. You just come off as an apologist with a post like this.

    • Larry

      IMHO – its the bigger screen on many Android phones. Its just a more pleasurable experience browsing or watching videos on a Droid X (for example) than on a smaller screen phone. Higher resolution, while always desirable, only helps to a point.

  • Anonymous

    If the iPhone had come out with the higher data use for mobile devices, would an appropriate headline been “iPhone users more engaged with leading edge communication”. The expectations augmentation inherent in tech related article titles undermines the exciting rate of development in the technology paradigm shifted we are living through. It would be interesting to dig into the figures to discover three kinds of data use patterns that account for the difference. Does access to voip over 3G have a significant role or is it all YouTube use etc? How does the rapid change in device utility affect the way we look at resource planning for data use as a society? ‘Evil Android steels data from the fingertips of fluffy bunny innocents’ will likely, sadly, continue to be the order of the day though.

  • Todd

    The biggest problem with android is the near daily updates to many apps that get installed… if you set them to update automatically, that is a huge bandwidth hog. There should be an option to only automatically update when connected to wifi.

    • Norm

      everyone knows I’m hard for DROID, but they don’t update their apps enough IMO. Half of them dont even work because they are all designed for different versions of DROID OS. Let’s be honest here at least. Still DROID DOES!

      • Nobody

        FFS, get the damn name right. It’s Android, not DROID OS, not DROID, not ANDROID. And stop gulping down the “DROID DOES” kool aid.

  • Uansari1

    I’m not surprised that Android handsets use more bandwidth. Our phones do way more than Blackberrys or iPhones. Not to mention, if you’re like me, you’ve probably got at least a few widgets that are updating things like weather, facebook, and twitter regularly. Can’t do that on Crapple.

    • Anonymous

      Dont care too. Check weather it’s instant click of a button with my 5Mb download.

    • Anonymous

      What do android devices do that a iPhone can’t. I can name you a bunch of things the iPhone can do that android can’t, Netflix, and so on.

  • Sonya

    So people have been complaining that the iPhone is clogging up AT&T’s network, yet if this article is true people on Verizon should be complaining 10x more. Well AT&T, it looks like your the problem.

    • Mgl323

      There’s about a gazillion iPhones on ONE carrier (AT&T), while there’s millions of Android devices across multiple carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile USA, Sprint, ect).

      • Anonymous

        AT&T has 13 million iPhones alone on their network. Add Andriod to that and Verizon isn’t anything.

  • David

    First of all some of you Android fan boys are overreacting. This is not really a big deal and I own a Droid X so hold the flames.

    Androids can do anything the iphone does. Now having said that what you fan boys forget is that Android phones can run widgets and some widgets require data. These same widgets can be set to update themselves more frequently requiring more data. On my heavier usage months I can use up to 5GBs, but when I’m just having an average months of a little Pandora to go with my Social Networking widget, my news widget, sports news widget, espn scorecenter widget, mlb10 widget, android central widget, droid-life widget and engadget widget then I can pump about 600mb + for a month.

    This is why us Android people hog more data than iphone people. That type of freedom is not a bad thing neither.

    • Anonymous

      Exactly what I’m saying as well. Yes, we probably use more data..but that’s because we do so much more.

      • Anonymous

        No really, it’s cause every time you fired up a app you’re holding a network connection cause your app lives in the cloud.

      • Nobody

        Really? Is that so? If they live in the cloud, why is it that I still have to DOWNLOAD the app? Oh right, because you’ve probably never actually used an Android device. I can put my phone on airplane mode and open up the majority of my apps and use them just fine. So stop talking out of your ***.

  • Anonymous

    Of course they use more data.

    Each Android phone user has to try out several different ROM’s. So downloading the different number will of course take up more bandwidth.

    Then you are downloading that seventh app and your phone tells you that you are now out of memory to account for the seventh app. So you go over your six apps and decide which four to keep. They you download two more apps.

    Then comes your over the air update. Which is fantastic, this means that you bought one of four Android phones that manufacturers decided to port the newest version of Android to. The problem? Everyone one of your six apps needs to be updated.

    Settle down Fandroids, just some holiday jokes.

    Cheers,

    • Anonymous

      Looking at 86 apps on my iPhone. Can’t delete any, I use them all.

  • offdayJB

    the cell phone companies just have to keep up with the growing demand is all. don’t limit us, whatever you do!!

  • Bgrwritersmomsare

    And iPhones are on THEE worst carrier!!!

  • Jared

    Tmobile needs some spectrum before they can even think about LTE

  • http://beez1717.myopenid.com/ beez1717

    the real story here is that Verizon is able to handle all their smartphone traffic with relative ease and ATT is not. I don’t care what the stats are, but from the looks of it i’m thinking that Verizon is doing a better job then ATT was, even when relatively few people had the iphone!

  • Chris

    I wouldnt say its the phone thats the bandwidth hog, maybe its the users? Yes, I am a bandwidth hog and proud of it.

  • Anonymous

    Flash contents can take more bandwidth which Iphone doesn’t.
    Guess what? T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless can handle internet traffic better.

  • Anonymous

    It’s cause 98% of android apps live in the cloud. 99% of iPhone apps are Native and live on the iPhone itself.

  • http://www.apexcarpentryinc.com/blog/ Craig B

    Most Android phones are on Verizon’s network. With a better network you will be able to use your phone more and use more data. Multitasking is a big part of the usage.

  • Scott

    I will be interested in finding out if this is true. I’ve been an iPhone user for 2.5 years, and I average about 3-4.5GB of data a month. I will be switching to the Olympus in January and I will continue to use the same functions that I already use, so it will be interesting to see if my data usage changes.

  • Creekside

    I use 3-4 GB monthly. Many times I reach for my EVO instead of going to my laptop. Hell, the EVO is at my side 24/7 (it sleeps next to my bed, charging at night).

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