Over 50 per cent of UK subscribers answered 'don't know' to a survey question on how many gigabytes of data they consumed each month. The study, conducted by UK-based Broadband Genie, claimed that subscribers could be paying hundreds of pounds for mobile data that remained unused each month.
Albeit there is a huge array of mobile broadband tariffs to choose from, consumers need to be aware not only of their likely monthly usage, but the possible savings available. Current UK tariffs range from £35 per month for 20Gb of data to as little as £10 per month for just 1Gb.
While newspapers frequently still carry horror stories of 'bill shock' caused by holidaymakers 'confused' over how much data mobile broadband downloads can consume--such as TV episodes, the reverse is often the fact.
Chris Marling from Broadband Genie said the real story was people using too little data, not too much. "The same consumer confusion sees many customers paying too much for their mobile broadband data tariff. Instead of a few people facing bills in their thousands, we're talking about thousands of customers who could probably halve their mobile internet bill and see no difference in their online usage."
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