Verizon smart-phone users average more data usage than AT&T’s, study says

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Thought your iPhone-toting friends were always buried in their phones? Seems Droid users are even more active Web surfers, according to a report released this week.

The average Verizon Wireless smart-phone owner gobbles up more of the network’s wireless data each month than AT&T customers, according to a survey of 20,000 cellphone bills by Validas.

AT&T has the most smart-phone customers, thanks in no small part to being the exclusive carrier of Apple’s iPhone. But Droids -- Verizon phones from Motorola and HTC running Google’s Android software -- have catapulted the nation’s largest cellphone carrier into the fast-growing smart-phone market.

Verizon’s smart phones clock 421 megabytes a month, while AT&T’s use 338 megabytes, according to the report.

These averages exclude the top-selling BlackBerry smart phones from Research In Motion because they tend to access far fewer Internet services than their Android and iPhone counterparts. Validas says it will release the full survey in September, but further details obtained by MSNBC from the company peg BlackBerry usage across all carriers below 50 megabytes a month.

Validas’ pool of consumer’s wireless billing information comes from its opt-in recommendation service for people seeking money-saving tips on their cellphone packages.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Left photo: Apple’s iPhone for AT&T. Credit: Rpongsaj via Flickr. Right photo: Motorola’s Droid for Verizon Wireless. Credit: Associated Press