Mobile Data Now Drives 72% of Operator Revenue

U.S. residents used 9.6 trillion megabytes (MB) of mobile data in 2015, three times the 3.2 trillion MB consumed in 2013, according to the CTIA.

Of course, usage is not revenue, which has been relatively flat in recent years, while average revenue per unit sold (line instances) has declined, falling four percent between 2014 and 2015, for example, despite subscriber growth of about six percent.

Aggregate industry revenue has grown, but at low rates, over the last three or so years.

In fact, one might argue that increased usage of voice and carrier text messaging no longer contributes to revenue growth, which is mostly a matter of selling mobile Internet access plans.

Voice minutes of use grew about 17 percent, but nobody seems to credit that usage increase with higher revenues.

Between 2013 and 2014, for example, voice revenue dropped 15 percent. Messaging revenue declined 16 percent. Mobile data, on the other hand, drives 72 percent of U.S. mobile service provider revenues, according to analyst Chetan Sharma.

In 2015, voice revenue dropped an even-steeper 24 percent, while text messaging revenues dipped 18 percent.  

Mobile Trends in the United States, 2014-2015
	2014	2015	The Delta
Subscribers	355.4 million	377.9 million	+6.3%
Smartphones	208.1 million	228.3 million	+9.7%
Data Traffic	4.1 trillion MB	9.6 trillion MB	+137.6%
Minutes of Use	2.5 trillion	2.8 trillion	+17.4%
SMS/MMS traffic	2.07 trillion	2.11 trillion	+1.7%
Incremental Capital investment	$32.0 billion	$31.9 billion	-0.3%
Cumulative Capex	$430.6 billion	$462.6 billion	N/A