When broadband internet first started appearing in the home, companies offered unlimited downloads. Now they're placing limits, often 250Gb per month, with surcharges if you exceed those limits. The culprit? Movies. The average 3 minute video clip is only about 10Mb, but the average two-hour DVD takes up about 4.7Gb. Still, that means that 250GB limit offers the opportunity to download just over 53 movies -- assuming 53 movies per month are worth watching -- or about 106 hours of video watching.
Right now, Cisco Systems estimates the average household downloaded 31.8Gb per month, and about 12% of US households downloaded more than 100Gb per month. By 2017, the company predicts, 17% of US households will use more than 200Gb per month and 5% using more than 500Gb per month. All these figures exclude mobile use.
As online retailing becomes more sophisticated and interactive, time among the online racks will rise. A 2009 Debenhams study found an average woman shops 13 hours per month and men about five hours per month. Even at full video, that still leaves bandwidth for 35 movies.
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