Video Data Usage

Live video consumes less data than high-definition video because it is lower quality. But watching just five minutes of Periscope broadcasts on a smartphone was equivalent to nearly two hours of Web surfing or sending and receiving 300 emails, according to tests by The Wall Street Journal. At that rate, watching five minutes daily over a month would consume nearly 50% of a 2 GB data plan costing $30, according to the Journal tests measured against AT&T’s online data calculator. (The Journal ran multiple tests on an Android-operated phone on LTE networks indoors and outdoors, during which the tester broadcast, browsed and viewed streams in five-minute increments.)

Consumers routinely go over their data plan, which can trigger slower speeds on some carriers or overage charges on others. Nearly half of wireless users aged 18 to 34 run out of data each month, according to a Sprint Corp. sponsored study in July. T-Mobile USInc. now throttles back data speeds when customers hit their limit, but it estimates that more than 20 million U.S. consumers industrywide were hit with overages in 2013 and paid out more than $1 billion in overage fees. Only two carriers—Sprint and T-Mobile—still sell plans with unlimited data.

Videos are expected to account for 60% of all mobile data traffic by 2020, up from 31% in 2012, according to Ericsson. Smartphone users are noticing the strain on their budgets. About 37% of respondents say they limit watching mobile videos because of the data cost, according to a report this month from Ericsson.