CTIA's latest surveys shows gains in data revenues, text messaging, wireless users, and an increase o 100 billion miinutes.
Wireless
revenues showed impressive year-to year gains. Wireless data
service revenues for the year 2008 rose to more than $32 billion.
This show a 39% increase over 2007, when data revenues totaled
$23.2 billion. Wireless data revenues for 2008 amounted to nearly 22% of
all wireless service revenues, and represent what consumers spend on
non-voice services.
According to the survey,
text messaging continues to be enormously popular, with more than one
trillion text messages carried on carriers' networks in
2008--breaking down to more than 3.5 billion messages per day. That's
almost triple the number from 2007, when 363 billion text messages were
transmitted. Wireless subscribers are also sending more pictures and
other multi-media messages with their mobile devices, with 15 billion
MMS messages reported for 2008, up from 6 billion the year before.
As of December 2008, the survery recorded more than 270 million wireless users. This
represents a year-over-year increase of nearly 15 million subscribers.
The industry's 12-month record for subscriber growth was reached in
2005, when 25.7
Other highlights of the surveyinclude: wireless customers using more than 2.2 trillion minutes
in 2008, an increase of 100 billion minutes from 2007, and
record-breaking six-month wireless service revenues of more than $75
billion with annual service revenues reaching $148 billion by
year-end 2008.
The CTIA Semi Annual Wireless Industry Survey results were released this
morning at International CTIA WIRELESS 2009.
"The survey results clearly prove that mobile broadband services are
enabling more Americans to grow their world like never before. Wireless
technology is an integral part of everyday life for more than 87% of the
U.S. population; changing and improving the way we connect and interact
with the world around us," said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA
-The Wireless Association. "The wireless industry consistently evolves,
innovates, competes and grows every year at a rapid pace, and 2008 has
carried on this remarkable trend."