A new survey conducted with 1,000 UK Mobile Broadband customers has found that 53.5% simply "don't know" how many GigaByte's (GB) of internet data they consume per month, which is despite some operators offering the ability (i.e. software) to help keep track of such vital information.

The BroadbandGenie study also found that, of those who did know their usage, around 11% consumed up to 1GB of data a month, 13% used 1-5GB, 9% dug into 5-10GB and 14% managed to eat a whopping 10GB or more.

The survey hypothesises that thousands of consumers could be saving hundreds of pounds per year by paying more attention to their usage; either through paying less by reducing their data cap, or paying less by upping their cap to avoid paying expensive usage fees per MB for going over their limit.

In reality the situation can be rather more complicated, with consumers typically having a varying degree of usage from month to month. Those on lengthy contracts would simply not be in a position to adjust their package, though Pay-As-You-Go customers do have more flexibility.

We're glad to still be using one of Vodafone's old PAYG Non-Expiry Mobile Broadband dongles, which are sadly no longer offered. These allowed you to buy a bulk of data, such as 1GB for £15, and then use it whenever you wanted. We found this ideal and were disappointed to see it withdrawn for new users.