In early 2008, British broadband users were consuming an average 18MB of bandwidth each per day according to research from Point Topic.

John Bosnell, Senior Analyst: “This comes to 280 odd terabytes per day in the UK and is equivalent to around 100 petabytes a year.”  While most users use their broadband to shop, check email, use banking services or just surf, there is a small percentage of users that account for the bulk of bandwidth consumed each day.

Dreaded by some and lauded by others are, the peer to peer file sharers.

Bosnell: “There are plenty of different estimates as to how much of this traffic is down to P2P, it’s primarily a matter of definition and there are as many interpretations as there are analysts and ISPs. Cisco (News - Alert) reports evidence in the US that P2P accounts for less than half of total traffic and the figure is declining, while Europe was around 50 percent  in 2007 but increasing slightly.  Other sources have P2P growing rapidly, depending on exactly what is classed as P2P.”

However, the evidence from Point Topic’s broadband survey is that the proportion of consumers engaging in P2P file sharing is declining, from 11 percnet in June 2007 to 9 percent this year. “Innovations like the BBC iPlayer and other broadcast related streaming services along with the increased number of legal download sites, particularly for music, have reduced the drive for users to download data via P2P sites,” says Bosnell.