Wireless Data Services Crucial to American Cell Phone Industry

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Wireless Data Services Crucial to American Cell Phone Industry

8:05 am on April 3, 2006 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Wireless

With the price of wireless voice calls now at an all time low, American cell phone carriers will need to focus their attention more on wireless data services in the years to come, giving special consideration to the business sector.

The US wireless industry enjoyed an excellent year in 2005 with a total of 200 million cell phone subscriptions, and consumer penetration of around 70%. The massive revenue growth of the past few years, however, is expected to level off in the not too distant future, with voice revenues set to begin declining by 2008 or 2009.

“Total voice service revenue declines (later) will jolt an industry accustomed to 25 years of voice revenue growth,” said Scott Ellison of research firm, IDC. “Driving further adoption usage of data services will be critical to maintaining total ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).”

Ellison believes that a large portion of data growth will come from the business sector, where overall revenues are expected to grow from $29 billion in 2005 to $52 billion in 2010. He predicted that many large enterprises would sign-up for master corporate contracts, to bundle both voice and data service in a single package. AirCard cellular broadband service for laptops could also be a major selling point for customers in the business sector.