January 09, 2012, 11:27 AM —
flickr/au_tiger01
OTT, or Over The Top, is the term wireless carriers use to describe device data traffic, such as streaming video. Siri may be the newest OTT bandwidth hog.
iPhone 4S users hog double the bandwidth of iPhone 4 users and triple that of iPhone 3 users, according to a study by NDP. Some researches blame Siri while some say the amount of Siri use doesn't matter. It will be interesting when some research isolates the update data needs of specific apps on specific phone models, including some Android models that are nearly as piggy as the iPhone 4S.
How much data can an iPhone transmit while doing nothing? One carrier executive told ITworld a teenage girl may gobble 100 megabytes a day just keeping her 300 apps updated. That doesn't include traffic needed for searching the Web, watching video, texting, or even talking. 100 megabytes is just the traffic generated by updates for idle apps on many iPhone 4S units.
Hogs
Who knew Siri was a hooker? You have to pay through the nose for her!
dglionaz on slate.com
What if all this isn’t related to the model of the phone, but instead a direct result of the point that 1% of the users use 50% of the data.
Rudolf on gigaom.com
I already see from my statement that I am now using what appears to be 3GB worth of data per month, when with my iPhone 4, I never ever crossed 1GB when I only had 2GB with ATT.
QUADICON on pcworld.com
Don't blame Siri
Isn’t this because of iCloud? I download from my iPad, and it’s downloaded to my iPhone 4S automatically?
asdfghjkl1 on gigaom.com
Did these guys forget about iCloud? Last I recall IOS5 added this feature along with Siri in the 4s and apple has pushed very hard for users to integrate it into their file management (especially as it pertains to media - mainly music).
Company7g71 on pcworld.com
This just reflects that iPhone 4S is the first iPhone that makes video streaming worthwhile.
Shock Me on gigaom.com
The real problem is smug iPhone owners who want to show off how the stupid thing works to all their friends, literally every chance they can possibly get.
Mose Henry on slate.com
Advice for carriers
Better start building out those networks... data usage is not going to decrease.
compguy99 on pcworld.com
power users tend to keep up with the latest iphone and are therefore accounting for a higher average amount of data usage with it.
LiveBrianD on pcworld.com
Who feels sorry for carriers? AT&T had a third quarter profit of $3.6 billion, beating Verizon's $1.38 billion profit for the same period.
