Last month, CCS Insight published its seventh annual survey of UK consumers’ buying behaviour for mobile phones and connectivity. This is one of my favourite pieces of research of the year and once again it revealed another fascinating set of findings. Clients can access the full report here; non-clients can view a summary in this press release.
For the first time, we probed people’s views on unlimited mobile data. Interest was higher than I expected: nearly two-thirds of respondents (64%) said they would consider taking the all-you-can-eat option next time they renew or upgrade their plan. Among people already with unlimited data, this soars to 95%.
According to CCS Insight’s research, data usage in the UK hit an average of about 15 GB per customer per month in 2024. Customers of Three are the driving force, gorging on 31.5 GB per month, more than twice the national average. Three has traditionally targeted heavy mobile data users, supported recently by capacity advantages from its large holding of mid-band 5G spectrum. About a fifth of Three customers told us they take unlimited data, more than any other major UK provider.
Our research raised questions about people’s understanding of “unlimited”. When we asked why people opted for it, the top reason was reassurance never to run out of data, cited by 63%. Yet adding more data on a tiered plan is usually quick and easy, either through an operator’s website, its app or a call to customer service. If you’re prepared to pay, you shouldn’t find yourself disconnected for long.
Data traffic is often swelled by a small number of very heavy users. Research from the GSMA shows that in some Asian markets, about 8% of customers are responsible for 55% of the traffic. I’d expect a similar pattern in Europe, too.
This would mean that typical usage is much lower than our 15 GB per month average. And our survey reflects this: only 29% of people taking unlimited data told us they stream a lot of videos and just a fifth like to tether (hot spot) other devices or are keen gamers. I’d wager that many people on unlimited data would be just as well served by taking a bundle.
The second-top reason for taking unlimited is value for money, cited by more than half of respondents. But in my view, it’s only the heaviest users that are really getting a great deal.
For example, Three offers a 250 GB per month SIM-only plan for £22 on a one-year deal. This is huge amount of data — equivalent to 1,500 hours of standard definition video streaming — that would surely cater to almost anyone’s needs. Yet Three’s unlimited data plan in the same tier costs £28 per month, about 25% more.
One of the challenges of unlimited data for operators is that there’ll usually be a cohort of customers feeling they’re not getting value for money, particularly during the months when their usage is below average. This can lead to dissatisfaction and possible churn.
Another hurdle for operators is that moving people to unlimited data takes away an important lever to upgrade them to more-premium plans. With data buckets, you can always add more to the bundle.
One way to overcome this is to use speed-tiering. Vodafone and EE, for example, offer unlimited data maxed at 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, along with a premium “unrestricted” option. Vodafone UK began using speed tiers when it launched 5G in 2019; however, its initial caps were just 2 Mbps and 10 Mbps — a clear sign of how the industry has moved on.
I’ve seen operators in some countries market “unlimited data” plans that throttle speeds once an initial data allocation has been used. This overcomes customer concerns about being disconnected and offers a path to upgrade. However, such an approach could raise concerns with advertising authorities and I’m not aware of any UK providers currently pursuing it.
Unlimited data can be used alongside other benefits to encourage customers to spend more. EE’s Unlimited All Rounder plan, for example, also offers EU roaming and a Netflix standard plan. This more-for-more approach has been popular for years in the US, where Verizon recently told me that 45% of its lines are on a premium unlimited offer.
But with unlimited, the devil is always in the detail. Very few providers offer a genuinely limitless deal. For example, EE states that it reserves the right to move people regularly tethering 12 or more devices “to a more suitable plan”. It also considers usage above 600 GB per month to be “non-personal”, warning that it may deprioritize access during busy periods.
My sense is that unlimited is a popular term with marketing teams keen to raise the profile of their deals and entice customers seeking peace of mind or convenience. This could appeal to people unaware of how much data they need or who may be confused by industry terms like gigabyte.
In the UK, it’s not just the network operators that offer unlimited data. All leading mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have an all-you-can-eat option too, including a £16 per month plan from iD Mobile, the cheapest I’ve seen ignoring limited-time promotions. As an MVNO, the economics of offering unlimited data need to be carefully managed as part of the relationship with the network partner, and I suspect iD Mobile is benefiting from Three’s capacity advantages.
An alternative approach to unlimited data, popular among MVNOs, is to offer services like data gifting and data rollover. These overcome the major frustration of “wastage”, often boosting customer satisfaction.
The big question is whether the industry will one day transition to fully unlimited data plans. Eventually, I expect it will, albeit with fair usage caveats still in place. It’s easy to forget that 20 years ago we were still buying bundles of minutes and texts.
For now, however, I’d caution against operators pushing too hard into unlimited data: it reduces opportunities to differentiate, offers the best value only to a tiny minority of very heavy users, and demands greater network investment without a guaranteed path to new revenue. But in the competitive UK market, some may still find it hard to resist.
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