6 in 10 Android users using less than 1GB of monthly data – Ofcom

Regulator’s research finds Liverpool is the chattiest Android-using city

Six in 10 UK Android users are using just 1GB of monthly data or less, according to a new report from Ofcom.

Just one in 10 use 5GB or more. The telecoms regulator’s research came from data gathered between January 1 and March 31 this year from around 150,000 Android users across the country.

More than two-thirds of the time, people were connected to WiFi rather than a 2G, 3G or 4G network. When they were connected to a network, 82 per cent of the time it was a 4G network, and 17 per cent of the time it was a 3G network.

“As expected, given our data on the time spent on different networks, average data use on WiFi was much higher than on mobile technologies. People may also do their more data-heavy mobile activities on WiFi due to their limited mobile data allowance, or lack of information on how much data certain activities use,” the report said.

“The proportion of people with monthly data use over 5GB was almost five times higher on WiFi than on mobile technologies, while the proportion of those using less than 500MB dropped by two-thirds to just 15% on WiFi.”

Those connected to EE spent the highest amount of time connected to 4G (90 per cent), with those on Three spending the least amount of time (78 per cent). Vodafone and O2 users spent 85 per cent and 83 per cent of their time connected to 4G respectively.

Ofcom found that Liverpool-based users spend the most time talking on their mobiles, with an average call time of six minutes and 51 seconds. This is far ahead of the second-highest city, London, where the average call time is four minutes and 49 seconds.

The overall average call time across the 150,000 users was just over four and a half minutes.