U.S. Telecom Market Doing Far Better than Most Others

It’s hard to say which development is more surprising: U.S. mobile data revenue surpassing voice for the first time, or U.S. fixed network spending accelerating. But both have happened, or will happen, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association.

And in a bit of encouraging news for the major U.S. communications carriers, at least, the TIA reports that although overall global telecom industry revenue growth decelerated to seven percent, down three percent from 2011 levels, revenue growth actually accelerated in the U.S. market from 5.9 percent in 2011 to 6.2 percent in 2012.

Overall spending on wireless and wireline infrastructure, in total, will hit $313 billion over the next four years (2013-2016) according to TIA estimates, an increase of 34 percent over the previous four years (2009-2012). That’s a hefty rate of increase.

In 2012, U.S. wireline spending was $39.1 billion, compared with $27 billion for wireless infrastructure. By 2016, wireline spending is expected to climb to $44.4 billion, while wireless will reach $38.4 billion.

In 2012, for the first time in the history of U.S. mobile telecommunications, customers spent more money on mobile data services ($94.8 billion) than on mobile voice services ($92.4 billion), the Telecommunications Industry Association now says.

TIA predicts this trend will accelerate in the years ahead – with mobile data spend hitting $118.6 billion in 2013 (versus $86.4 billion for voice) and $184 billion by 2016 (versus $70.1 billion for voice).

Additionally, U.S. wireless penetration jumped over 100 percent in 2012, growing to 102.5 percent for the year. TIA predicts that wireless carriers will add 40.3 million subscribers over the next four years, for a penetration of 111.3 percent in 2016.

TIA predicts U.S. revenue growth rates of 7.1 percent in 2013 and 6.8 percent in 2014, while international markets will see rates of 7.9 and 6.5 percent, respectively.

The MR&F is compiled annually by TIA and provides a global industry overview along with chapters that offer a deep-dive into specific industry segments. This year’s MR&F also features a new “Major Trends” chapter, providing in-depth analysis of significant developments.

Machine-to-machine services will see average growth of 57.2 percent over the next four years. Cloud services will see an average growth rate over the next four years of 16.3 percent, down slightly from the 20.5 percent rate of 2012.