UK Lockdown: £165M Worth of Unused Mobile Data
High-profile horror stories of customers receiving huge, unexpected bills for going over their data allowance have made us all wary of using more data than we’ve paid for. This has led to the majority of consumers opting to pay for a more generous data package than they really need in the hope of saving money. unused mobile data
According to research from Sky, however, rather than saving us money, this is actually costing customers an average of £50 every year.
So what’s the answer to this? Well, the first thing to do is to work out how much data you need and to check your usage with your network. unused mobile data
If you regularly pay for more than you use but you’re wary of opting for less data in case you go over your limit, a plan that includes data rollover might be a good solution for you.
Uswitch has found that the lockdown has seen users rely on WiFi connectivity rather than mobile data.
According to the report, which sampled 2,000 UK adults, average data use dropped by 21 percent.
The figure went from 2.4GB down in February to 1.9GB, a fall of 500MB in a month.
Rolled over and unused mobile data
Over a third (38 percent) of customers want their data to be rolled over to the following month, while 22 percent want a refund on unused data.
While 11 percent said they’d wish to give their unused data to essential workers.
Eight percent are happy to donate unused data to charity.
Figures from Sky Mobile, which is one of the few networks that lets people save up unused data for later, show that since lockdown began on average customers have rolled over 4.6GB of unused data each – more than double the normal monthly amount.
Overall, Sky customers have built up a staggering 5.4 million GB of unused data in just six weeks.
More than a third of consumers (38 percent) want their unused data to be rolled over to the following month, while one in five (22 percent) would like a refund on any unused data. A generous one in ten (11 percent) would like to give their unused data to essential workers, and eight percent want a monetary equivalent to be donated to charity.
Uswitch mobile expert Ru Bhikha said: “We have mobile deals to set up browsing on the go.
“But since many of us are homebound and relying on WiFi to stay connected, we’re simply not burning through our data allowances in the same way.
“Many consumers would like to see this data rolled over to when they have more use for it, and it’s great to see more providers like Sky Mobile already doing that.”
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