Many wireless service customers have openly criticized carriers for the transition to tiered data plans, but a new study suggests that an unlimited data option isn’t necessary for the majority of subscribers. NPD, a recognized consumer market research group, used an Android app to collect information on the wireless data usage of a group of 1,000 smartphone users.

According the results, T-Mobile subscribers use the most bandwidth, though only 11 percent of customers exceeded 3GB per month. Surprisingly, during the course of the trial less than 5 percent of customers on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint exceeded 3GB of data each month. The higher number of data-hungry users on T-Mobile’s network is said to be a cause of its younger subscriber base accessing more data-intensive features. As expected, Wi-Fi connectivity played a key role in the amount of wireless data each customer used.

It’s definitely nice to see some actual numbers when it comes to data usage, though it doesn’t justify the amount of money Verizon and AT&T are charging for their new shared data plans. What do you think about the study? Are you a heavy data user?

BGR