Wireless Industry Survey Shows Huge Yearly Increase In Mobile Data Usage

Mobile data usage is exploding as U.S. carriers start to roll out 5G services.

Mobile data usage in the U.S., according to The CTIA (YoY growth):
1) 2017 – 12.9T megabytes
2) 2018 – 28.6T megabytes (↑ 82%)

U.S. smartphone users:
1) 2009 – 50M
2) 2018 – 285M

Why does 5G matter?  Fifth-generation wireless is coming with speeds 10–100X faster than we have today.

What this means for the pay-TV industry: More competition. Cable companies are going into wireless (see Comcast) and wireless companies are going into pay-TV (see AT&T).

Big threat: If a wireless company like Verizon is able to offer fast home broadband delivered via mobile, then the number of home broadband options jumps from 1-2 to 4-5 overnight.

Remember: The majority of profit for pay-TV providers comes from selling broadband rather than the actual pay-TV service.

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