Binge Alert: Since Netflix Was Launched in Aus, Our Data Usage Has More Than Doubled

Are you responsible for half of that data usage?

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown that Australians are using more data than ever before.

Sydney Morning Herald reports there might be a link between when Netflix (and subsequent streaming sites) launched and the dramatic increase in data usage.

Since the streaming giant opened for business in Australia in March 2015, broadband downloads have more than doubled from 1,388,648 terabytes in June 2015 to 3,586,528 terabytes in December 2017. 

Each hour that ultra high-definition content on Netflix is streamed, up to seven gigabytes of data is used. If your average Netflix subscriber is watching around seven hours of content each week (which seems a little light tbh), then 49 gigabytes (quick maths) of data is being used per person. But if you were to binge-watch all episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine using this rule, it would take about seven weeks or 50 days, according to Binge Clock, amounting to 350 gigabytes.

It seems like a dizzying amount.

To keep up with these vast amounts of internet usage, there was a 38.7 per cent increase in the number of fibre connections around Australia between June and December 2017. This brings the total to around three million dwellings with NBN connection; however, there are still more than 10 million without fibre connection.

Let's just hope the NBN can catch up with our internet-bingeing ways.

Photo: iStock.com/kasinv