New Data: Americans Used 4.1 Trillion Megabytes (MB) of Data in 2014, Up 26% vs. 2013
From CTIA–The Wireless Association (U.S. Wireless Industry Trade Group):
Today, CTIA–The Wireless Association released the results of its annual survey, which shows Americans used 4.1 trillion megabytes (MB) of data in 2014, a 26 percent increase over 2013.
Helping to drive the increase in data usage were smartphones and tablets, which now number more than 208 million and 35.4 million respectively, accounting for 68 percent of all mobile devices used on wireless networks.
According to the CTIA annual survey, every minute, Americans:
- exchange 3.6 million text messages (SMS);
- exchange almost 300,000 videos and photos (MMS); and
- use 7.7 million MB of data.
One of the biggest trends in this year’s survey is the proliferation of multiple wireless devices in households. There are now more than 355 million total wireless subscribers, or 36 million more devices than Americans, a wireless penetration rate of 110 percent.
Top-Line results can be found in this 11 page PDF (Free). The full text report is fee-based. Purchasing info and methodology can be found here.
Data Tables and Video (Data via CTIA)
Year-End U.S. Figures from CTIA’s Annual Survey Report
Unless otherwise noted, facts are from CTIA-The Wireless Association,
CTIA’s Wireless Industry Summary Report, Year-End 2014 Results, 2015
| Topic |
Dec. ’14 | Dec. ’13 |
Dec. ’12 |
Dec. ’08 |
Dec. ’03 |
| Wireless Subscriber ConnectionsEquals # of active devices, including smartphones, feature phones, tablets, etc. Since users may have more than one wireless device, it is not equal to individual subscribers. | 355.4M | 335.6M | 326.48M | 270.3M | 158.7M |
| Wireless Penetration Equals # of active units divided by the total U.S. and territorial population (Puerto Rico, Guam and the USVI) | 110% | 104.3% | 102.2% | 87.2% | 53.6% |
| Wireless-Only Households1% of U.S. households | 44.0% | 39.4% | 38.2% | 20.2% | 4.2% |
| Annual Wireless Data Usage (in MB) |
4.06T | 3.23T | 1.468T | N/A | N/A |
| Monthly Wireless Data Usage (in MB) |
338.4B | 269.1B | 122.3B | N/A | N/A |
| Annual Voice Minutes of Use | 2.455T | 2.618T | 2.30T | 2.20T | 829.9B |
| Monthly Voice Minutes of Use |
204.6B | 218.2B | 191.7B | 183.8B | 69.2B |
| Annual Text Messages | 1.92T | 1.91T | 2.19T | 1T | N/A |
| Monthly Text Messages (at year-end) | 169.3B | 153.3B | 171.3B | 110.4B | N/A |
| Annual Multimedia Messages | 151.99B | 96.1B | 74.4B | 14.9B | N/A |
| Monthly Multimedia Messages (at year-end) | 15.4B | 10.1B | 7B | 1.6B | N/A |
| Annual Wireless Revenue | $187.8B | $189.2B | $185.0B | $148.1B | $87.6B |
| Cell Sites | 298,055 | 304,360 | 301,779 | 242,130 | 162,986 |
| 911 Calls2 | 460K | >400K | >400K | 260K | 139K |
| Capital Investment | $32.1B | $33.1B | $30.1B | $264.76M | $145.54M |
| K=Thousand | M=Million | B=Billion | T=Trillion |
1Figure is from the Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January – June 2014. National Center for Health Statistics, December 2014.
2CTIA Wireless 911 and Distress Calls.
| Mobile Trends in the United States, 2010-2014 |
|||
|
2010 |
2014 |
The Delta |
|
| Subscribers |
296 million |
355 million |
+20% |
| Smartphones |
78 million |
208 million |
+166% |
| Tablets (CMRS only, not Wi-Fi) |
14 million |
35 million |
+161% |
| Data Traffic |
388 billion MB |
4.06 trillion MB |
+947% |
| Minutes of Use |
2.24 trillion |
2.45 trillion |
+10% |
| MMS traffic |
57 billion |
152 billion |
+168% |
| Incremental Capital investment |
$25 billion |
$32 billion |
+29% |
| Cumulative Capex |
$310 billion |
$431 billion |
+39% |
Filed under: Data Files, Interviews, Patrons and Users, Profiles, Resources
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
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