Earlier this year, a Sydney resident outdid everyone else in Australia by using nearly a terabyte of data in one day. His challenge? To download everything he possibly could. What’s more, this data was free due to a free-data day to make up for an earlier network outage.

To help you digest the enormity of his task – that’s about 1000 gigabytes. The average American uses only about 1.8 gigabytes per month.

While this man is certainly an anomaly when it comes to outrageous data usage, Australia is known for their data congestion caused by the enormous amount of data they use. Aussies want it all – lock stock and barrel. According to one study, the average Australian uses about 48 hours on web browsing per month and about 7GB per month per person. That is a lot.

Let’s look at why the Aussies use so much data – for example, 1.71 million terabytes in just a few months late last year – a nearly 50% increase from year to year.

Netflix Arrives on the Scene

The arrival of Netflix basically created a nation of binge watchers and has been a major factor in driving up Internet usage ever since. Some Internet service providers even reported a 50% jump in usage due to the arrival of Netflix.

It should come as no surprise, though, that Netflix would have such a noticeable impact on Australian Internet usage. The streaming service is incredibly popular and now finds itself in more than 80 countries.

Yet, while it may be no surprise that Netflix made data usage soar, it should also be no surprise that the complaints about slow Internet speeds also rose.

Netflix has taken a huge toll on the data infrastructure in Australia.

Numbers Continue to Increase

Mobile data and Internet usage continue to rise in 2016. These data numbers persist in their explosion as companies like Telstra, a telecommunications company, continue to offer all-you-can-eat data buffets called free-data days.

On these free-data days, the country consumes massive amounts of data. Why do they offer these free days? They were started because the company had at least three outages in early 2016, angering data-hungry Aussies.

An amazing noteworthy statistic is that on February 14, Telstra customers gobbled up 1,841 terabytes of data, and on April 3, they devoured 2,686 terabytes.

Final Thoughts – Managing Usage

Data is vital to the busy lives of most Aussies because its helps keep people connected on social media, downloading movies and apps and just browsing the Internet. Many people have multiple devices in the home.

On those days during the year when data usage isn’t free, there are some ways Australians can manage their data usage.

Did you know that your device can use data without you knowing it? It can by checking emails, backing up content and running updates. But, there are ways to fix this so data doesn’t add up so quickly.

Here are some tips:

• On your phone, set it to not use data when there’s no Wi-Fi or the signal is weak.
• Disconnect push email on your phone. In other words, don’t let your device check and download new emails on its own when you’re not checking your email.
• Turn off automatic notifications like Facebook and Instagram alerts for your mobile device.
• Turn off location services on apps that don’t need to use this feature.
• Turn off high definition and use standard definition when watching videos and stop them from playing automatically in apps.
• Check your settings and make sure they are only set to download, sync or back up when fixed to Wi-Fi.
• Delete unused apps.
• Keep all operating systems up to date.
• Secure your Wi-Fi network with a password so no one can sneak in.
• Activate and use firewalls on your computer.
• When away for an extended period, turn your modem and router off.
• Set usage alerts. 

While Aussies want it all, there are ways to manage data usage to your benefit. Using the above suggestions, you can extend your data and get more from your data plans.

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