One South African home internet user has crossed a milestone that would have sounded absurd just a few years ago, consuming more than one million gigabytes of data in a single year. As reported by MyBroadband, the customer used 1.023 petabytes of data over a 12 month period on an uncapped fibre connection.
The usage was recorded by Axxess, one of the country’s largest ISPs. The customer was on a 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home line provided by Frogfoot. Averaged out, that works out to roughly 2.8 terabytes per day, 116 gigabytes per hour, or nearly 2 gigabytes every minute, sustained over an entire year.
The extreme case highlights a much broader trend. Internet traffic across South Africa has surged rapidly in recent years. In November 2025, the country’s largest internet exchange, NAPAfrica, recorded a peak traffic rate of six terabits per second. According to figures from Icasa, international internet traffic hit more than 3.2Tbps in 2024, an increase of about 180 percent compared to 2020.
Axxess says the biggest drivers behind rising usage are faster line speeds and the rapid rollout of uncapped fibre packages. With competitively priced products offering speeds up to 1Gbps and no data caps, households can stream, download, and cloud sync without worrying about limits. Founder Franco Barbalich noted that higher speeds naturally encourage heavier usage, especially as more customers migrate to fibre.
The petabyte user was not alone. Axxess reported several other customers consuming staggering amounts of data. The second heaviest user burned through 869 terabytes on a 500Mbps Openserve line, while three more customers each exceeded 600 terabytes over the same period. All five top users were on high speed fibre connections from different network operators.
Video streaming remains the single largest contributor to fibre traffic. Platforms like YouTube dominate usage charts, alongside services using protocols such as QUIC, cloud platforms like iCloud, and infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services. While streaming still accounts for the majority of traffic, its share has declined slightly as other uses grow.
One notable shift is the resurgence of BitTorrent traffic. Axxess reported that BitTorrent’s share of total traffic rose from 3 percent to 7 percent, suggesting that large file sharing, including piracy, may be making a comeback alongside faster and cheaper fibre connections.
Looking ahead, data consumption in South Africa is expected to climb even faster. Expanded fibre rollouts, mobile network upgrades, and upcoming direct-to-cell satellite services are set to connect more users at higher speeds. At the same time, fibre network operators such as Octotel and Frogfoot are preparing multi-gigabit home packages, with speeds ranging from 2.5Gbps up to 10Gbps.
As speeds climb and applications like cloud gaming, 4K and 8K streaming, and AI driven services become more common, the idea of a home user consuming a petabyte a year may soon shift from shocking outlier to early preview of what heavy internet use will look like in the near future.
