That's according to a report by CCS Insight, which found that, based on Ofcom figures, fixed-line broadband traffic has increased 70 per cent since 2019, reaching an average of 535 GB per connection per month.
Traffic rose 11 per cent in 2023 alone and it's a trend that shows no signs of abating, with high-definition streaming, video conferencing, online gaming and other bandwidth-intensive applications driving broadband usage even higher.
In mobile, growth has been even stronger. Traffic levels leapt 25 per cent last year, following a 27 per cent jump between 2021 and 2022. Data over 5G networks showed the highest rate of increase, at about 140 per cent.
According to CCS Insight's latest forecast for the telecom market, the average mobile user in the UK will consume 27 GB of data per month in 2028, up from about 8 GB per month today and less than 4 GB in 2019.
In a recent filing, Virgin Media O2 said that it spent more than £2 billion in 2023 to bring its network to new places and build extra capacity.
And yet, the UK's standing on the global connectivity stage still has much room for improvement. In the latest Speedtest Global Index report, published by Ookla in March 2024, the country languished in 51st place in mobile and 48th in fixed-line broadband services.
In another report, by Opensignal in December 2023, the UK is shown to have the slowest data download speeds in the G7 and ranks 39th out of 56 countries in terms of active 5G connections.
CCS Insight has warned that any dip in spending will result in the UK dropping further behind its peers, threatening to widen the digital divide, hinder economic growth and thwart technology development.
Investment is crucial for all parts of society. This includes enterprise and public sector organisations, as well as consumers. One of the pledges made by Vodafone and Three when the two companies announced their planned merger in June 2023 was to bring 5G standalone access to every school and hospital in the UK by the end of the decade, part of an overall £11 billion commitment. For businesses, connectivity will underpin innovation in areas such as AI, private mobile networks, smart cities, the IoT and more.
But the telecom industry faces several major headwinds. As well as the vast expense to deploy next generation networks, the sector's own costs are rising, driven by surging inflation and geopolitical turbulence. BT, for example, noted in 2023 that its energy bill had leapt by about 80 per cent over the previous 12 months.
Operators also need to foot the bill for rising costs in labour, transport and raw materials. Swapping out equipment from high-risk suppliers, as mandated by the government in 2020, brings another financial burden. And then there is the challenge of ensuring network security, a growing concern amid rising global tensions.
Despite recent price rises, the report found that telecom services still represent value for money. In 2023, BT's then CEO Philip Jansen highlighted that his customers only pay about £1 per day for fixed-line broadband and 50 pence per day for mobile. He added that BT's price increases in 2023 amounted to an average of just over £1 per week more for most of its customers.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), average weekly household spending on telecom products and services in the UK was £20.50 in 2022. This represents less than 4 per cent of the total average weekly household expenditure of £528.80.
The long-term trend for telecom service pricing has been unmistakably downward, according to Ofcom. The regulator said that total average monthly household spending on communication services fell 17 per cent from 2016 to 2022, a drop driven by mobile as voice and data services plummeted by 35 per cent.
Expanding coverage is crucial to narrow the digital divide that was so starkly highlighted during the pandemic, said the study. Without adequate mobile coverage, some people are at risk of being ostracised. For example, smartphones are increasingly needed to scan QR codes in restaurants to access the menu or place an order; to pay parking charges; or receive two-factor authentication requests.
According to Ofcom, the level of outdoor 5G coverage provided by at least one mobile network operator rose from between 67 per cent and 78 per cent in 2022 to between 85 per cent and 93 per cent in 2023. But there is still plenty to be done to ensure that access to online services is fully inclusive; the final pieces of the coverage jigsaw are always the most challenging — and expensive.
As well as satisfying consumers and businesses' seemingly insatiable desire to stay connected, investment in new networks plays an important role in achieving environmental and sustainability targets, the report found. Vodafone UK indicates that carrying a terabyte of data over 4G consumes only 35 per cent of the energy it would over 3G, and using a 5G network, this plummets to just 7 per cent. This means that rolling out the latest infrastructure not only helps the telecom sector cut its own emissions, but also supports other companies to reach their net zero targets.