VR-Zone

 

Capacity is expected to become a bigger issue this year as a a small section of 'extreme' users take up an even larger amount of available bandwidth than before, exacerbated by the growing popularity of mobile devices that are 3G and 4G capable.

 

Owners of newer smartphones appear to be bigger culprits, with the iPhone 4S considered the worst. They consume three times more download data than iPhone 3G users and twice as much as iPhone 4 users. However, Google Nexus One users make twice as many data calls as iPhone 3G users, showing that heavy use is not limited to Apple devices.

 

 

“The introduction of increasingly sophisticated devices, coupled with growing consumer demand, is creating unrelenting pressure on mobile networks,” said Dr. Michael Flanagan, CTO of Arieso and  author of the study. “The capacity crunch is still a very real threat for mobile operators, and it looks set to only get harder in 2012. The mobile industry needs new investment and new approaches to boost network performance and manage the customer experience”.

 

The figures echo similar findings in terms of the world's wealth and will likely fuel Occupy Wall Street protests over the growing divide between the rich and “the 99 percent”, with a small 'elite' becoming increasingly 'well off' with digital information.