Over 50 per cent of mobile phone users in South Africa make use of over one gigabyte of data per month, with over half of these having access to an unlimited data plan, according to an Effective Measure study.
The study, entitled the South African Mobile Report, shows that over a quarter of South African mobile phone users have access to one gigabyte or more of data, while more than 25 per cent have no need to limit data usage due to unlimited plans.
The study also reports that 17 per cent of users have a data plan of 100 megabytes or less.
According to the study, data is mostly used for instant messaging, checking emails and accessing social media.
“Instant messaging and emailing are the most commonly used activities South Africans perform on the web. It is interesting to note that accessing social media for network activity comes as the third most used activity by South Africans,” the study said.
Of all instant messaging platforms WhatsApp is used the most, despite nearly 38 per cent of the population owning BlackBerry devices.
HumanIPO reported in February mobile data growth rates in the Middle East and Africa would be the highest globally by 2017.
According to a study by Cisco, entitled “Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017”, mobile data usage in the region will increase 17-fold, generating eight per cent of global mobile traffic.
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