DL - 4G Americas

to address network congestion issues. Considering that the U.S. is also becoming the largest base for
HSPA+ and LTE deployments, most of the progressive research in areas of data management and
experimentation with policy, regulations, strategy and business models is taking place in the networks of
the U.S. operators, Sharma noted. 30
A wave in Internet connectivity growth is being driven by the cellular industry, and the global number of
Internet connected devices has now surpassed the number of connected computers and is growing at a
much faster rate. 31 According to CTIA, there were more than 243.5 million Internet-capable devices
during the time of its survey, which was an increase of more than 6.4 million since June 2009. 32
SMS text messaging also continues to grow as more SMS-capable devices widely penetrate the market.
As of June 2010, 1.8 trillion SMS messages were reported. 33 This number is up by 33 percent from the
year before, when 740 billion text messages were reported for the first half of 2009. Wireless subscribers
are also sending more pictures and other Multimedia Messages (MMS) with their mobile devices – 56.3
billion MMS messages were reported for the first half of 2010, an increase of 187 percent.
Data traffic continues to increase across all U.S. networks, which CTIA reported handling 161.5 billion
megabytes of data in the six months ending in June 2010, up 49.8 percent from the last half of 2009. 34
The U.S. wireless data market grew 6 percent quarter over quarter and 22 percent year over year to
exceed $13.2 billion in mobile data service revenues in Q2 2010, according to Chetan Sharma. Nonmessaging
services continued to capture 60 to 65 percent of the data revenues of U.S. carriers. 35
In its June 2010 Visual Networking Index, Cisco estimates that almost 66 percent of the world’s mobile
data traffic will be video by 2014 and will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 131
percent between 2009 and 2014. Cisco reported that mobile video had the highest growth rate of any
application category measured within the mobile data portion of its Cisco VNI forecast at that time. 36
Forecasts by consulting firm Ovum show that users of mobile broadband services (3G and 3G+
technologies) will grow from 181 million in 2008 to over 2 billion in 2014; a staggering growth of 1,024
percent. Ovum forecasts that users accessing the Internet via mobile broadband-enabled laptops and
handsets will generate revenues of US$137 billion globally in 2014, over 450 percent more than in
2008. 37
There will be a continuing shift in the percentage of 3G mobile broadband versus 2G connections.
Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that by the end of 2015, the global 3G mobile broadband market will
include over 4.2 billion subscriptions, of which 3.6 billion will be 3GPP family technologies with 87 percent
share of market. 38 This substantial number of mobile broadband connections will serve to feed the
growth of data services.
30
US Mobile Data Market Update Q2 2010, Chetan Sharma, 10 August 2010.
31
Internet connected Devices about to pass the 5 billion milestone, IMS Research, 19 August 2010.
32
Semi-Annual Survey on Wireless Trends, CTIA, 6 October 2010.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
35
US Mobile Data Market Update Q2 2010, Chetan Sharma, 10 August 2010.
36
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2009-2014, Cisco, 2 June 2010.
37
2 billion+ mobile broadband users by 2014, 450% more revenue - and watch emerging markets, Michael Schwartz, Analysis
Market Trends, 15 April 2009.
38
Forecast Summary, 2Q 2010, Informa Telecoms & Media.
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 31