Wireless Study Shows Sharp Differences in How Mobile Users Access Web

The state of mobile connectivity varies widely depending on the wireless protocol technology or service providers that predominate in a given region, according to a report released by mobile data platform Ogury. In January the company sampled more than 4 million U.S. user profiles and examined how people around the country are employing WiFi and 4G networks to access the internet. Ogury also looked at individual carrier networks, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, to see if there were meaningful differences among the carriers in how their customers accessed the internet. The results were striking. The Ogury data shows that people around the United States access the internet in substantially different ways.

Ogury revealed the states where mobile users relying most on WiFi connectivity. Tops was Vermont, where 81.2 percent use WiFi over 4G. West Virginia was next, followed by Maine at 79 percent.

On the flip side, Ogury found that just 29.8 percent of all connections in Colorado rely upon WiFi. In Georgia, 38.7 percent of connections prefer WiFi and 40.2 percent in Illinois.

It’s no surprise that 62.2 percent of Colorado citizens access data using 4G over any other connectivity protocol. Maryland was the second-most obsessed 4G state, with 54.6 percent of all connections using that protocol technology, followed by Georgia at 54.5 percent.

In Vermont, just 16.3 percent of people use 4G connections to access the internet, far fewer than the 18.6 percent of people in West Virginia who do the same. Maine’s 4G connectivity rate stands at 20.2 percent.

Ogury found that mobile users are far more likely to connect to 4G in the United States than any other country. In fact, 46.1 percent of all U.S. connections are made over 4G, compared to 30.3 percent in France and 20.5 percent in Spain.

WiFi connectivity is critically important to mobile users in Europe. In the UK, for instance, 71 percent of mobile devices connect over WiFi, besting Spain’s 66.2 percent rate. Just 49.2 percent of U.S. mobile users connect to the internet over WiFi.

The majority of Verizon customers access the internet over WiFi. A whopping 64.7 percent of all Verizon customers accessed the internet over WiFi in January, dwarfing the 34.1 percent who connected via 4G.

It was a different story with AT&T customers. According to Ogury’s data, 47 percent connected to the internet over WiFi in January, just topping the 46.6 percent of customers who used 4G.

T-Mobile’s customers love their 4G. In January, 76.5 percent of T-Mobile customers accessed the internet over the company’s 4G network. In comparison, just 14.8 percent connected via WiFi.

Sprint has the heaviest contingent of 4G customers. In January, 81 percent of Sprint users connected to the internet over its 4G network, while just 18.8 percent used WiFi.