Are Americans Dumping Their Home Internet For Mobile Data?

[Jeffrey]

According to the US Census Bureau, more and more Americans are. The data shows, the proportion of homes that only used a mobile internet connection went from 10 to 20 percent . As the Washington Post points out, roughly one in five online households in the US is now mobile-only.

The survey showed that one out of 5 Americans earning less than $25,000 per year rely solely on their mobile data connectivity.

Surprisingly, the chart below shows that those with larger incomes are ditching their home internet as well.

​

Giulia McHenry, Chief Economist of the Office of Policy Analysis and Development, states that mobile internet "appears to be competing more directly with wired internet connections."

I look at this and see risk. Are you getting the speed you need? What if you lose your unlimited data plan? What happens when you change carriers, lose or damage your phone? And I'm sure there are other issues to consider.

Have you cancelled or are you considering canceling your internet at home? Let us know below..

Source WP

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I can't see cancelling at home any time soon. I get about twice the speed down via Charter than I do on VZW with no cap. I use somewhere around 5GB or so a month on my phone via cellular, but the last time I checked, I also use over 20GB a month wifi on my phone. That's not including the smart TV, Xbone, tablets, laptops, etc.

I suppose I can see how some people would find the cost savings beneficial, but it's worth it to me to keep paying Charter, even if I like to complain about our total bill with TV and internet.

 

[Jeffrey]

+1 @Jonny Kansas. Here, we are in the midst of a price war. My provider just increased my fibre optic speed from 30 to 100 at no additional cost.
I can't see giving up my home service anytime soon...

 

[Mustang02]

No way. Costs too much.

 

[IIGood]

That is a bit surprising to see.

I won't be doing that any time soon either (ever?), given 1) The lousy cell service I have in my neighborhood ,2) the cost for wireless data, and 3) the speed difference.

For the second point, if someone does a lot of video streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, et al.), I could see their wireless data cost being far greater than a landline. And it also ties into the third point of speed...landline-based internet speeds are ever-increasing, and as fast as 4G is, it barely come close to even some of the slower speeds offered by landline. Maybe that will change with 5G...who knows.

Now, there might be those rare cases where someone has no landline-based internet service available to them and HAS to rely on wireless but those probably aren't too common. Although, my senior manager is like that...the only internet service available to him is via satellite where he lives so he opts to use his mobile service for internet.

 

[Mustang02]

I've been tempted to use my UDP as my home replacement. I pay for it, why not?

 

[IIGood]

I've been tempted to use my UDP as my home replacement. I pay for it, why not?

Why not indeed. Though it seems those that still have the UDPs are also becoming fewer. If you've got it, I would say go for it if that's your desire. Just beware of any throttling the carrier might impose after a certain data threshold. But for folks on tiered plans, it just wouldn't make sense.

 

[mountainbikermark]

If you look at other economic, social, educational, and inflationary numbers, this isn't about unlimited data plans, speed comparison or other forum related topics. I work in disposable income geared retail. I see the reasons for the numbers almost daily.

Support Our Troops!!!
Beast Mode 4
<><

 

[jackiescivic]

Hell no. The cost of data is way too high, just like the cost of UVerse/Time Warner/etc for TV. I do way too much streaming on Hulu and Netflix to ever justify getting rid of home Internet. It wouldn't surprise me if I use almost 100gb a month with streaming. Last I checked a few years ago when my mom had Time Warner, halfway through the month we were already at 40gb . I use even more streaming now than I did then.

I could absolutely see getting rid of home Internet if I was a casual user only doing email and some Web browsing and no social media. Factor in computer updates and your usage goes mighty high as well.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

 

[Mustang02]

I'm going to look at my home router logs to see how much I use. I downloaded the GOW beta the other day and I'm sure that's 20-50GB's. Over a cell phone, that would take me days. My home internet is 50/5. My vzw mobile speed is barely 8/1. Now project Fi with Tmobile is 30/20 for some reason.

That's just for personal. Since I work from home, my work laptop has even more data consumption. Emails, databases, software updates, etc. They don't ask me, "is it okay to push this update to your computer?". If I was on a metered connection, I'd be pissed if they used 2 or 3GB of my paid for data.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Last time I checked my router log, we were at around 200GB of use. Can't remember how close we were to the end of our billing cycle though.

 

[Mustang02]

I won't even get into latency. That's another discussion.

 

[johnomaz]

Wait, seriously. Is this a belated April Fools joke?

According to my router right now, I've downloaded 358Gb and uploaded 44Gb since April 1st. I don't even consider myself to be a heavy user. I doubt I'd ever consider it let alone actually do it.

 

[RyanPm40]

Maybe if I could get unlimited data dirt cheap.. Otherwise I'm completely fine paying my $50 a month for 170mbps download speeds haha. Can't get much better than that with Comcast.