Fixed line broadband customers in the UK are using on average 17Gb of data per month according to figures released today by Ofcom.

The demand for data has grown considerably the last few years, and with ever increasing broadband speeds it is likely to continue to grow into the future. According to data from the London Internet Exchange they have found that demand for data has risen seven fold over the last 5 years.

To put the 17Gb of monthly data use into perspective, it equates to around downloading 11 films per months or streaming 12 hours of BBC iPlayer HD video or more than 12 days of streaming audio content.

This increase in data use is largely possible to the now genuinely unlimited broadband packages that are on the market giving users more freedom to download without the worry of exceeding download limits, however users should be aware that they check what their download limits are on their broadband deals to avoid any problems going forward as not all broadband deals come with unlimited broadband.

With BT’s £2.5bn investment into fibre broadband that will cover two thirds of the UK by 2014 and with speeds on their “slowest” fibre broadband due to be increased to up to 80Mb broadband connections we can only expect that both broadband limits on any broadband plans are increased and that the average monthly use across the UK will also continue to grow.

The Guardian newspaper got figures out of Virgin Media and TalkTalk of their customers average usage. Virgin media said that those customers on 10Mb broadband services used on average 19Gb per month, while those on their 100Mb broadband lines were using around 130Gb per month. TalkTalk said that their average user downloads around 13Gb per months while BT would not give any details.

Mobile broadband data is still quite low in comparison, with on average just 240Mb per connection.