The big three carriers claim they don’t market “Unlimited” data plans because average mobile data user doesn’t come close to their standard data cap of xxMB, and this is true nine out of ten times. Recently, AT&T, who had an Unlimited package (which glorified new iPad owners) decided they were going to eliminate it it in exchange for a cheaper, capped plan.

With all this talk of data and usage, a good question gets raised: “What is the most mobile data a person has used on a given carrier in a month?” Iain Marlow, of the Globe and Mail, decided to do some research on this with one of the only carriers in Canada offering “Unlimited” data as a market offer, WIND Mobile, and you will be surprised at the findings. Anthony Lacavera, CEO of WIND released the following stats exclusively to The Globe of the heaviest mobile data consumers on their network in the country. The results are as follows:

The Top 10 Heaviest Users of Data on WIND Mobile’s Cellular Network (Measured in Gigabytes Per Month)

  1. 118.56
  2. 95.12
  3. 55.32
  4. 51.70
  5. 44.51
  6. 39.21
  7. 33.72
  8. 33.59
  9. 28.94
  10. 26.85

For the record, half of those are mobile data sticks and half of them are smart phone tetherers, who are attaching their smart phone to their laptop and using it as a modem. Yes, like most carriers, WIND still has a fair use “throttling” policy in effect for those who eat through data like a buffet, but due to the light user base, WIND’s network is fairly open, leaving plenty of room for these heavy consumers.

In my opinion, to use that much data in a given month is irresponsible, but the user is definitely getting his/her money’s worth. This is an exact reason why the big three would never follow suit. There are too many users on an already-congested Canadian HSPA series of networks.

Read the full story at the Globe and Mail.

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