WiFi devices have proliferated in the U.S.
household, with 80 percent of homes using WiFi to provide data connections to
smartphone, tablets, laptops, televisions and gaming consoles.

iGR forecast that for the heaviest users of
WiFi in the home, total bandwidth used is expected to increase from more than
390 GB per month in 2011 to nearly 440 GB per month in 2015.

WiFi will increase from 55 percent of the
total bandwidth used in 2011 to more than 75 percent in 2015. This high level
of data consumption is driven principally by demand for video, both streamed
and downloaded.

WiFi provides a high quality data
connection in the home so users are accustomed to very low latency and high
connection speeds.

WiFi is wireless and users are increasingly
accustomed to bandwidth-intensive activities on laptops, smartphones and,
increasingly, tablets.

In-home usage is a precursor to
outside-the-home usage. For example, consumers who stream Pandora while doing
homework are highly likely to want to stream Pandora while going for a run. And
consumers who watch a TV episode on a tablet in the home will expect to do the
same sitting in the park or at the airport.

“Why should wireless operators,
infrastructure vendors and device OEMs care about how much WiFi is used in the
home? Because today’s consumers are expecting a world in which they always have
high-speed data access to anything they want,” said Matt Vartabedian, iGR’s vice president of the wireless and mobile research service.

According to the report, older consumers
are the least likely to use WiFi, while middle-aged consumers are more likely
to use WiFi in airports, hotels. These are likely to be business travelers.

Smartphone ownership tends to drive more
WiFi usage — conversely, consumers who do not have smartphones are least
likely to use WiFi. Consumers with smartphones are more likely to use WiFi in
various locations.

Everything that applies to smartphone users
also applies to WiFi use: for example, they tend to be in their 20s, 30s or
40s; they tend to be employed or, in some cases, in school; they tend to have
reported annual household incomes that are above the U.S. median.

Tablet users, by default, are the most
likely to use WiFi in any given location. As discussed in other iGR research
studies, tablet users are almost always smartphone users.

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]