Wireless revenues showed solid year-to-year gains, as wireless data service revenues for 2008 rose to more than $32 billion, according to a survey from CTIA-The Wireless Association.
This represents a 39 percent increase over 2007, when data revenues totaled $23.2 billion. Wireless data revenues for 2008 amounted to nearly 22 percent of all wireless service revenues, and represent what consumers spend on non-voice services.
“The new 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.”
Text messaging continues to be popular, with more than one trillion text messages carried on carriers’ networks in 2008 amounting to more than 3.5 billion messages per day. That’s nearly triple the number from 2007, when 363 billion text messages were sent. Wireless subscribers are also sending more multi-media messages with their mobile devices, with 15 billion MMS messages reported in 2008, up from 6 billion the year before.
As of December 2008, the industry recorded more than 270 million wireless users. This represents a year -over-year increase of almost 15 million subscribers. The 12-month record for subscriber growth was reached in 2005, when 25.7 million new users came online.
Wireless customers used more than 2.2 trillion minutes in 2008, an increase of 100 billion minutes from 2007, and a record six-month wireless service revenues of more than $75 billion with annual service revenues reaching $148 billion by the end of the year.
