CTIA’s annual survey of carriers shows continued growth and expansion of 5G cellular services and data
How much do American consumers use their cell phones? Wireless network operator trade association CTIA gives updated numbers in its recently released annual survey, and the numbers are unprecedented.
Americans used 132 trillion megabytes of cellular data last year, which blew away last year’s record of 100 trillion megabytes — and according to CTIA, was the single largest jump in data consumption in U.S. history. For three years straight, demand for mobile data has increased by about 35% per year.
Other key numbers from CTIA’s annual survey included:
-U.S. wireless connections grew to 579 million, or 1.7 connections for every person.
-5G devices make up more than 259 million of those connections, or nearly half, compared to 39% last year.
-Americans exchanged almost 2.2 trillion text and multimedia messages during 2024, the most since the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
-Voice calls accounted for more than 2.4 trillion minutes of talk time.
-Ninety-nine percent of new home broadband subscribers are using cellular 5G-based data services, with 5G home subscribers increasing nearly 3.7 million to reach almost 12 million subscribers nationwide. “Overall, our market penetration has expanded rapidly, growing to nearly 12M subscribers by the end of last year, and projected to increase 1.7x by 2028,” CTIA said of Fixed Wireless Access. “The only thing holding back this popular product is more full-power licensed spectrum.”
The organization went on to say: “This record growth highlights why Congress’s direction to auction 800 megahertz of new spectrum is so critical.”
CTIA has been pushing hard for a number of years for additional spectrum to be auctioned for exclusive-license, full-power use, and it finally achieved that goal with the passing of President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act that ordered 500 megahertz of federally-held spectrum to be identified and auctioned for commercial use, plus 300 megahertz of non-commercial spectrum. That bill did identify a few bands for study, but largely left it an open question as to which federal and non-federal bands will be repurposed — which has left backers of Wi-Fi and CBRS nervous.
“From our perspective at least, all options that are permitted by law are on the table,” said Ajit Pai, CTIA president and CEO and former FCC chairman, during a recent conversation with media members at CTIA headquarters in Washington, D.C. when he was asked about specific spectrum bands for cellular use.
The Federal Communications Commission is already moving ahead on preparing for an auction of the Upper C-Band spectrum. Auctioning the main C-Band spectrum for cellular use resulted in fears and warnings of radio altimeter interference in legacy altimeters in aircraft as deployments became imminent, and a rush to figure out risks and protection areas, and upgrades of altimeters. Will that happen again when more C-Band is added to the mix?
In terms of the upper C-Band, Pai said: “There is a productive conversation going on now, between wireless carriers, aviation and government, and we’re hopeful that this will result in a very favorable resolution of any lingering concerns that there might be.” He added: “I think both in terms of process and substance, this is not the first rodeo for any of the stakeholders, and I think that gives everybody an advantage in the sense that we understand now, more than we did in 2019 and 2020.”
While some operators have told Wall Street that they are satisfied with their current spectrum position, Pai pointed to the industry’s ongoing investments — $29 billion last year, resulting in among other things, more than 15,000 new cell towers being activated in 2024 — and the growth in cellular data demand as reasons why additional spectrum will continue to be needed, and the planning should be going on well in advance.
“If you look at what carriers have done in recent years, the proof is in the pudding in terms of the money they’ve spent at auction, the money that’s being spent in secondary market transactions, and the money that … is being invested in upgrading and maintaining wireless networks. This is one of the most capital-intensive industries in the entire economy, and I think the reason is that people understand American consumers really like having wireless services at their disposal,” Pai said.
“One constant in the consumer experience is that they’re always using more. So the time to think about spectrum policy is not when you’re behind the eight-ball and the situation is so dire that services can’t be delivered or that there’s tremendous lag in the network. The time to think about it is in advance,” he said. “So that’s really how we approach it, is that you always want to think about where the wireless consumer is going to be in five years, in 10 years, in 20 years, and make the necessary adjustments in policy now so that you never confront that situation where demand is substantially outstripping supply.”
Read CTIA’s full annual survey here.
