U.S. consumers double their mobile data traffic consumption in six months

With so much talk these days about uninhibited mobile data growth and the impact it’s having on wireless carrier networks, you’d think there was no money in mobile broadband. Think again.
Revenues from mobile data in the United States jumped 6% in the second quarter from the previous quarter and climbed 22% from the year-ago period, according to fresh data from Chetan Sharma Consulting. In Q2 alone, revenues for mobile data eclipsed $13.2 billion. No wonder the consultancy is confidently holding firm to its initial estimate of $54 billion for the year.
Verizon Wireless (VZ) is still on top with almost 100 million data connections and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) had its first positive net-add quarter in three years, according to the research firm. During the second quarter, AT&T Mobility (T) and Verizon accounted for 75% of all data revenue growth and now command 70% of all related revenue in the United States overall.
With data traffic increasing across all networks, the first half of 2010 ended with the average U.S. subscriber consuming about 230 megabits of data per month, representing a 50% increase in just six months, Chetan Sharma wrote. The United States “has become ground zero for mobile broadband consumption and data traffic management evolution,” he concluded.
“While the traditional net-adds have been slowing, the connected device segment is picking up so much that both AT&T and Verizon added more connected devices than postpaid subs in Q2 2010. Given the slow postpaid growth, operators are fiercely competing in prepaid, enterprise, connected devices, and M2M segments,” Sharma added.