- THE BILL OF BACKING UP: £1billion1 is being spent per year by Millennials on mobile storage
- STORAGE WARS: Nearly one in six2 (17%) of Millennials pay £5 per month for additional mobile phone storage
- DIGITAL HOARDERS:3 million (6%) phone users have never cleared out their mobile phone to free up storage
- TOP TIPS: Director of Connectivity at Virgin Media O2, Gareth Lister, recommends clearing through videos, photos and apps once a month for optimum mobile efficiency
In the spirit of the first day of Spring (Thursday 20 March), O2 is advising mobile phone users to not only think about sprucing up their homes, but their tech too, as research reveals that 3.33 million people have never decluttered their mobile phone.
According to research by O2, nearly half (42%4) of British mobile phone users are paying for additional mobile storage, with photos, videos and unused apps being the main culprits of storage consumption.
The true cost of being a digital hoarder has been revealed, as research reveals Millennials admit to paying over six times more than boomers pay (£33.36 vs £4.80 respectively5) over the course of a year for extra storage.
Taking numerous videos at experiences such as gigs is a common strain on mobile storage, with O2* reporting that 76% of music fans take photos and videos every time they attend a concert, resulting in fans spending an average of 14 minutes per concert capturing content on their phone.
O2, one of the UK’s largest mobile network operators, recommends that consumers should consider clearing out their phone once a month to keep on top of storage capacity and to avoid a slower and less efficient mobile experience.
Virgin Media O2’s Director of Connectivity, Gareth Lister, also gives his top tips on how mobile users can save device space this Spring and beyond:
- Say no to automatic saving: Check to see which apps automatically save images, apps like WhatsApp can add images to your photo album without you even realising.
- Clean out the voice notes, videos and photos from your chat history: These can unexpectedly take up a lot of space on your device, so remember to occasionally have a clear out and delete any content you don’t need to avoid unnecessary build up.
- Once you’ve listened to it, delete it: Podcast downloads can easily pile up when you subscribe to them on a weekly occurrence, so try to delete episodes once you’ve listened. File sizes can be between 25MB and 50MB per episode so can very quickly dominate your device storage.
- Steer clear of filming in 4K: This will require significantly more storage space than lower resolutions like 1080p, especially if you like to take numerous videos, because it has four times the number of pixels, meaning more data to store per frame.
- Organise and delete unneeded apps: Regularly take stock and check to see how much storage your apps are using. If you’ve not used an app in several weeks, consider whether you really need it.
- Delete videos you’ll never rewatch: Gig-goers especially are renowned for taking photos at gigs, and while it’s great to capture those memories, do you really need 20 videos of one song?
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- * PANIC ON THE DANCEFLOOR: 57% of Brits feel ‘charge anxiety’ at concerts – Virgin Media O2
- The research was conducted by Censuswide with a sample of 2,002 Nationally Representative UK Respondents. Quotas were applied to nationally representative proportions for age, gender and region aged 16+.
- The survey fieldwork took place between 13.03.2025 – 17.03.2025. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.
Calculations to support stats:
[1] Mean figure of £1.65*12 *55,190,347 = 1,092,768,870
2 Combines ‘£5–£9.99’ and ‘£10 or more, please specify in £:’
3 0.06*55,190,347 (ONS nat rep figure) = 3.3million
4Combines ‘Less than £1, please specify in pence:’, ‘£1–£2.99’, ‘£3–£4.99’, ‘£5–£9.99’, ‘£10 or more, please specify in £:’
5 0.40*12 = £4.8/2.78*12 = £33.36
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