JERSEY CITY, N.J.—OpenVault has released new data showing that DOCSIS 3.1 and higher services are driving significant across-the-board increases in speed and consumption, most notably a 3X rise in median usage.
The Q3 2025 edition of the “OpenVault Broadband Insights” (OVBI) report found that median monthly usage for DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers in the third quarter of 2025 was 530.54 GB, 207.7% higher than the median monthly usage of 172.43 GB for subscribers on legacy DOCSIS 3.0 plant.
In addition average monthly total, downstream and upstream usage all were 80% higher or more for DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers than for DOCSIS 3.0 households, specifically.
“While network pressure is stabilizing, absolute levels remain elevated, reinforcing the continued need for proactive capacity planning, upstream optimization, and intelligence-driven demand modeling going into 2026,” the report concludes. “DOCSIS 3.1 clearly has emerged as a driver of increased consumption; to maximize the DOCSIS 3.1 experience, broadband providers should invest in Profile Management Application and Proactive Network Maintenance solutions that can optimize network performance.”
For this edition of the OVBI, OpenVault utilized data collected by its SaaS suite of broadband management solutions across contiguous DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 3.0 networks servicing more than 100,000 homes. Data sources included the Vantage PNM proactive network maintenance and Vantage PMA profile management application products that are helping operators provide the pristine environment required to optimize DOCSIS 3.1 performance.
Key findings include:
- Average Usage – Monthly average consumption in Q3 2025 was 640.8 GB, an 8.6% increase over the 590.1 GB recorded in Q3 2024.
- Median Usage – While average usage fell from Q2 to Q3, median usage rose from 431.4 GB in Q2 to 438.87 in Q3.
- Upstream – Upstream usage increased 17.4% in Q3 2025, outpacing the 13-14% year-over-year growth rates that have marked Q3 since 2021.
- Power Users – The pace of year-over-year Q3 growth of super power users of 2 TB or more per month on average has slowed, from 35.1% in 3Q23 to 24.6% last year to 22.5% in 2025.
- Average total usage was 719.36 GB per month for DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers, an 85.10% increase over the 388.73 GB of DOCSIS 3.0 users.
- Average downstream usage was 660.97 GB for DOCSIS 3.1, vs 358.85 GB of DOCSIS 3.0 users for an increase of 84.20%.
- Average upstream usage was 58.4 GB for DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers, 95.40% more than the 29.88 GB of DOCSIS 3.0 users.
- The networks studied exhibited increases of more than 53% in downstream (624 Mbps vs. 407 Mbps) and upstream (66.4 Mbps vs. 43.37 Mbps) speeds. Further, consumers on DOCSIS 3.1 networks are more than twice as likely to be Power Users of 1 TB or more per month, and more than three times as likely to be in the emerging category of Extreme Power Users of 5 TB or more.
- Almost one-fourth – 23.57% – of DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers used 1 TB or more during 3Q25, 118.20% more than the 10.80% on DOCSIS 3.0 plant, while the 0.19% of subscribers consuming 5 TB or more was 221.70% more than the 0.06% on DOCSIS 3.0. Data also showed that 5.01% of DOCSIS 3.1 subscribers were Super Power Users of 2 TB or more, vs. 1.87% of DOCSIS 3.0 households, an increase of 167.90%.
The entire report is at https://openvault.com/resources/ovbi/.
