The latest figures released via Orange UK's fifth Digital Media Index reveal that usage of Mobile Broadband USB Modems (Dongles) has increased by 4,125% during the past 12 months and related subscriptions have surged by over 504%. Similarly mobile data usage consumed by mobile handsets (phones, smartphones) increases by 108%.

Key findings on our entertainment services include:
* Music downloads surge – 38% increase
* Video downloading escalates – 38% increase
* Mobile gaming rises – 8% increase in the number of games downloaded

Key findings on social networking include:
* 129% increase in monthly page impressions
* 48% increase in monthly unique users
* 53% increase in the average number of pages per user, per month

The monthly total data usage for both handset and USB Modem based Mobile Broadband Internet data usage is now estimated to be over 386,000 GigaByte’s (GB)! The rise is largely attributed to a combination of advances in handset technology (iPhone etc.) and cheaper price plans.


At the end of March 2009, Orange had almost 17 million customers in the UK – 15.8 million active mobile customers and close to one million fixed broadband (ADSL) customers. This suggests that the operator has lost some of its fixed line broadband subscribers, again, which should show up in their next set of results.