DL - 4G Americas

U.S. This represents a 151 percent increase over the first half of 2009. In addition, wireless data
revenues were more than 30 percent of all wireless service revenues and represented what consumers
spent on non-voice services.
AT&T’s wireless data revenues at the third quarter 2010 – from messaging, Internet access, access to
applications and related services – increased $1.1 billion, or 30.5 percent from the year-earlier quarter, to
$4.8 billion. Additionally, AT&T wireless subscribers on data plans increased by 21.5 percent over the 12
months ending September 2010. Fifty-seven percent of AT&T’s 67.7 million postpaid subscribers had
integrated devices, up from 42 percent a year earlier. The average ARPU for integrated devices on
AT&T’s network was 1.7 times that of the company’s non-integrated device base. Churn levels for these
plans continued to run below the company’s postpaid base. AT&T’s third-quarter integrated device growth
included 5.2 million iPhone activations, the most iPhone activations ever in a quarter. This was 61.6
percent more than the previous quarterly record of 3.2 million activated in the second quarter of 2010.
Approximately 24 percent of those activations were for customers who were new to AT&T. 44
With its rapid network deployment of HSPA+ in 2010, T-Mobile USA's data growth started to match other
leading mobile service providers by the third quarter of 2010. Service revenues reached $1.26 billion,
increasing 25 percent year-over-year by September 2010. Data service revenues per customer grew to
$12.40, representing 27 percent of blended ARPU, up from 25 percent of blended ARPU/$11.60 per
customer in the second quarter of 2010. T-Mobile USA reported 7.2 million subscribers used
smartphones at the third quarter 2010, compared to 6.5 million in the previous quarter and 2.8 million in
the third quarter of 2009. The operator credited increasing smartphone penetration as well as ongoing
network upgrades for increasing adoption of mobile broadband data plans, adding that messaging
remained a substantial component of blended data ARPU. 45
In Canada, Rogers Wireless had data revenue growth of 28 percent at the third quarter of 2010. Wireless
data revenue comprised 28 percent of total wireless network revenue and was helped by the activation
and upgrade of a record 529,000 additional smartphones during the third quarter, predominantly
BlackBerry, iPhone and Android devices, of which approximately 33 percent were for subscribers new to
wireless, compared to 370,000 in the prior year’s third quarter. This resulted in subscribers with
smartphones, who typically generate ARPU nearly twice that of voice only subscribers, representing 37
percent of the overall postpaid subscriber base as at September 30, 2010, up from 28 percent as at
September 30, 2009. 46
Informa Telecoms & Media reported the average data contribution to ARPU in Latin America as of 2Q
2010 at 19 percent. Countries with the highest data contribution to ARPU were: Argentina (39 percent),
Venezuela (33 percent), Mexico (24 percent), Ecuador (24 percent), Brazil (15 percent), Colombia and
Peru (14 percent), and Chile (13 percent); the data contribution to ARPU represented US$ 4 billion in
Latin America during this period.
4.3 MOBILE BROADBAND DEVICES
The worldwide mobile phone market grew 14.6 percent in Q3 2010, which, according to IDC, was the
fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth and was driven in part by the fast-growing converged
mobile device category.
44 AT&T Investor Briefing #207, AT&T, 21 October 2010.
45 T-Mobile USA Reports 3 rd Quarter 2010 Results, 4 November 2010
46 Rogers Reports Third Quarter 2010 Financial and Operating Results, 26 October 2010
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 33