Wireless connections topped the U.S. population for the first time, according to the Wireless Association’s latest semi-annual survey, released today.
According to the survey, there are 327.6 million connections vs. a population, including Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, of 315.5 million. That is a 9% increase from thed 300 million subs according to the mid-year 2010 survey.
That translates to a U.S. population penetration of 103.9%, which means that many people have multiple subscriptions. One person, for example, might have a smartphone, a tablet, and a wireless Internet card.
Sales of smart phones jumped dramatically, up 57% from midyear 2010′s 61 million to midyear 2011′s 95.8 million.
Text messages continue to be massively popular, with 1.138 trillion sent in the past year, up 16 percent. Wireless network data traffic was 341.2 billion megabytes, more than double from the mid-year 2010 count of 161.5 billion megabytes. The average local monthly bill was around $47.
Annual revenue from all those subs was $164.6 billion for the 12 months ending June 2011, up 6% from the previous 12-month period.
The Wireless Association’s latest semi-annual: CTIA Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey.
