3GPP - 4G Americas

2008 compared to March 2007. 12 Wireless broadband services will create significant
opportunities for revenue growth and cellular technologies will take the largest share, reports
telecoms adviser firm Analysys Mason. 13
The increased uptake of mobile broadband services data traffic – with more than 100 million
14
subscriptions worldwide using more than 300 live networks – is partly due to the trend of flatrate
mobile broadband tariffs. The flat-rate pricing movement that was started by Willcom in
Japan, and moved to Europe, now is taking firm roots in the U.S. market with industry wide flatrate
pricing plans that include data services. All the major carriers offer flat-fee access plans for
most of the new smartphones being introduced in the market. 15
Data penetration had reached 56% and 3G penetration had reached 37% in 3Q 2008 in the U.S.,
16
up from 30% 3G penetration in 2Q 2008. Smartphone penetration has been inching up as well.
Analyst Chetan Sharma notes these trends are expected and the diffusion of mobile broadband
will continue to create new opportunities and revenues for the ecosystem. 17
The number of data subscribers has likewise been on the rise in the U.S. with messaging
volumes averaging over 105 billion messages per month or at the average of one message per
18
subscription every two hours. In comparison, users in the Philippines routinely send one
message every hour. 19 Text messaging in the U.S. continues to be enormously popular and is
doubling every year, with more than 384 billion text messages reported by carriers in 2008
between January 1 and June 30 – an average of more than 2 billion per day 20
– more than 22
billion more text messages than for all of 2007.
Early 2007 was a milestone year when worldwide mobile handset shipments exceeded one billion
for the first time, and in 2008, the world crossed another highly significant milestone by reaching
50% mobile penetration point worldwide. Another milestone in 2008, gross industry revenues
21
were estimated to reach one trillion dollars. Portio Research projects 75% global penetration by
2011. 22
This is an exciting time for the wireless cellular industry.
12 Mobile Traffic Growth Sparking Data Traffic Boom. Max Digital Media Newswire. 4 August 2008.
13 Wireless Broadband to Exceed 2 Billion Customers by 2015. FierceWireless. 30 July 2008.
14 Mobile Traffic Growth Sparking Data Traffic Boom. Max Digital Media Newswire. 4 August 2008.
15 U.S. Wireless Data Market Update – Q3 2008. Chetan Sharma. 16 November 2008.
16 Ibid.
17 US Wireless Data Market Update – Q2 2008. Chetan Sharma. August 2008.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 CTIA-The Wireless Association Celebrates 25 Years of Mobile Communication. CTIA. 10 October 2008.
21 Global Wireless Data Market Update – 1H 2008. Chetan Sharma. 2008.
22 Worldwide Mobile Penetration will Reach 75% by 2011. Press Release. 25 October 2007.
www.3GAmericas.org February 2009 Page 20