Locked-down Britons are sitting on 165 million gigabytes of unused mobile data worth a staggering £165 million, according to new research from Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service.
With millions of us confined to our homes during the nationwide lockdown, consumers are using a fraction of the data that they would usually, as they rely on their household Wi-Fi to stay connected.
Among those who are not essential workers, average data use has dropped from 2.4GB a month in February to 1.9GB a month now, a fall of 500MB, or 21%[3].
By contrast, essential workers’ data usage has increased by 100MB (a rise of almost 4%) over the same period, up to 2.8GB a month in lockdown, compared to 2.7GB in February[5].
More than a third of consumers (38%) want their unused data to be rolled over to the following month, while one in five (22%) would like a refund on any unused data[4]. A generous one in ten (11%) would like to give their unused data to essential workers, and 8% want a monetary equivalent to be donated to charity[4].
Ru Bhihka, mobiles expert at Uswitch.com said, “Locked-down consumers are sitting on a mountain of unused mobile data worth a staggering £165 million.
“We have mobile deals set up to accommodate browsing on the go – but since so many of us are homebound and relying on Wi-Fi to stay connected, we’re simply not burning through our data allowances in the same way.
“Many consumers would like to see this data rolled over to when they have more use for it, and it’s great to see some providers like Sky Mobile already doing that.
“If you are unsure about how much data you need, it’s worth checking to see how much you are currently using each month and if it is more than you require, run a comparison to see if you can find a better suited plan.”
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