Base load traffic, almost 1M per day doing nothing !

[#1]

I have been absent from home for a week, leaving my computers switched off, and my broadband modem and wireless hub switched on. 
During this time, my daily Metronet usage statistics show;
  Upload  figures 219 or 220 K bytes
  Download figures ranging between 608 and 736 K bytes.
I assume this is base load 'housekeeping' traffic between my modem and metronet.
Can anyone confirm this and tell me why it is such a large number, almost 1 Mbyte per day doing nothing and counting as part of my monthly usage. 
The current line setting is 512Mb/s. 
Will this base load traffic get worse if I change to the faster 8M line speeds?

[#2]

Hi
This is probably down to internet background noise.
You may reduce it by setting your modem so as not to respond to "pings" or try using the  "Web content filter" or "Metronet Firewall" if you are not already using them.
I can't comment on the 8mb connection but there should be no reason why the background noise should be any greater.
If there is no reason to leave the modem on - switch it off on do your bit for energy conservation 
Cheers

[#3]

My background is also around the same level (1MB).  In my case this is both background internet "noise" (which accounts for around a 100kB) and my VoIP phone ATA registering and doing time lookups.
1MB/day is 30MB/month, which is fairly insignificant in any case (unless, I suppose, you're on the 419MB Metronet Option 1 package and want to avoid paying for extra usage).

[#4]

Hi there,
More than happy to dig out your line stats for you.  Could you possibly PM me the telephone number of the account that you're referring to as there is more than one account associated with your forum profile.
As mentioned by other, 1MB/day is not a massive amount for background noise.