Three UK users are now burning through an average of 15GB of data per month

Three UK says its customers' average data use has hit a whopping 15GB per user per month. The milestone was hit in October, a 50 percent rise since the start of the year. 

The numbers have, of course, been helped by people staying at home more this year and using their data allowance in different ways. Many people are now consuming data at home for work purposes, while others who have coped with slow home connections when they weren't at home much have turned to mobile data for streaming and more. 

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Three has traditionally offered unlimited data packages - something the other networks have been forced to adopt - but the network tends to have more high data consumers as a result. We spoke to a couple of users who have used 200GB and 2TB respectively over the last month. 

According to Three's research Brits have contacted friends and family more often this year, sending hundreds more messages and making over 150 more voice calls. Interestingly, the research also found that around 50 percent of UK workers thought they'd been more productive working from home even though around half a million of us are spending 25 or more hours a week on video calls. 

5G hasn't pushed ahead quite to the extent we expected during 2020 (for obvious reasons) but with more 5G phones around it certainly feels like 2021 will be the year that 5G finally kicks into gear. 

Three launched its 5G network in February in 68 locations before extending it to a total of 154 towns and cities last month. That means Three has 5G in more locations than others but coverage tends to be quite localised in each place. 

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