Top 1 percent at it again, using half of all the world?s mobile bandwidth

Apparently the disproportionate distribution of resources isn’t confined merely to wealth. According to the findings of U.K. communications consultant, Arieso, one percent of mobile users generate half the world’s traffic, and the top 10 percent claim 90 percent of usable bandwidth.

And, the  inequality is rapidly getting more so. “The gap between extreme users and the rest of the population is widening, according to Arieso. In 2009, the top 3 percent of heavy users generated 40 percent of network traffic. Now, Arieso said, these users pump out 70 percent of the traffic.”

But, Occupy Wall Street needn’t move into mobile traffic to right this wrong. Arieso chief Michael Flanagan said that “the situations are very different, and the mobile situation doesn’t break down along socioeconomic lines.” Apparently, some people are just data hogs. Or, as The New York Times said, “The imbalance in mobile phone consumption is another example of a relatively small group of individuals dominating the consumption of a particular resource.”

But, the perpetrators aren’t necessarily on longer; it often has to do with the technology they use. For instance, Siri, the voice activation on the new 4S iPhones seems vastly to increase the amount of data owners exchange. In fact, though, most data hogs on mobile airwaves aren't talking on the phone. Rather, “64 percent of extreme users were using a laptop, a third were using a smartphone and 3 percent had an iPad.”

Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World’s Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing (NY Times, Jan. 5, 2012)