CTIA Annual Wireless Industry Survey: Americans’ Wireless Data Usage Continues to Skyrocket

CTIA released its Annual Wireless Industry Survey, which found Americans used a record 13.72 trillion megabytes (MBs) of mobile data in 2016, an increase of over 4 trillion MBs over 2015 and 35 times the volume of traffic in 2010. The amount of data traffic sent over wireless networks in 2016 -13.72 trillion MBs - is the equivalent of 1.58 million years of streaming HD videos.

Some other key findings:

• Data-intensive mobile devices continue to rise: Heavy traffic-generating devices, smartphones and wireless-enabled tablets and laptops, now total 309.8 million of the 395.9 million devices on carrier networks – a 238% increase since 2010.
• There are more wireless devices than Americans: With 395.9 million total active devices in the US, adoption is now equal to 120.6% of the US population, or more than 1.2 wireless devices per American.
• Industry committed to building world-leading networks: A record 308,334 cells sites were in operation in 2016, representing a 57% growth over the last decade, thanks to over $26 billion invested in 2016 alone.