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CTIA is the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry, Dedicated to Expanding the Wireless Frontier

Wireless Quick Facts
Year-End Figures



Topic Dec-12 Dec-11 Dec-07 Dec-02 Dec-97
Wireless Subscriber Connections
Number of active devices, including smartphones
feature phones, tablets, hotspots, etc.
326.4M 316M 255.4M 140.8M 55.3M
Wireless Penetration equals
# of active units divided by the total U.S. and
territorial population (Puerto Rico, Guam
and the U.S. Virgin Islands)
102.2% 99.7% 83.1% 48% 19.8%
Wireless-Only Households1
% of U.S. Households
35.8% 34% 15.8% N/A N/A
Annual Wireless Data Traffic 1.468T MB 866.7B MB N/A N/A N/A
Annual Total Wireless Revenues $185B $169.8B $138.9B $76.5B $27.4B
Annual Incremental Capital Investment $30.1B 25.3B $21.1B $20.0B $13.5B
Annual Minutes of Use 2.30T 2.296T 2.12T 619.8B 62.9B
Monthly Text Messages 171.3B 193.1B 48.1B 1.0B 1.2M
Annual Yearly Text Messages 2.19T 2.3T 362.5B N/A N/A
Cell Sites 301,779 283,385 213,299 139,338 51,600
E-911 Calls2
Per Day
>400K >396K 260K 139K 55K


  K=Thousand             M=Million                B=Billion                 T=Trillion


1Latest figures as of June 2012 are from Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January – June 2012. National Center for Health Statistics, December 2012.

2
CTIA Wireless 9-1-1 and Distress Calls.