US mobile data service revenues to grow 22% in 2011

The US mobile data market grew to USD 14.8 billion in service revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010, up 5 percent from the third quarter and 23 percent more than in Q4 2009. According to market researcher Chetan Sharma, total revenues reached USD 55 billion in 2010, and this should grow 22 percent in 2011 to USD 67 billion. Chetan Sharma estimates that mobile data volumes grew at an even faster rate of 132 percent last year, to a monthly average of 350MB per customer. This was due to smartphones accounting for an estimated half the mobile devices sold in the US in the fourth quarter, versus 25 percent on the global market. The market researcher expects that by the end of this year, smartphones will consume more mobile data than laptops in the US, and the country's mobile data consumption will also exceed that of world leader Sweden. As demand grows, prices are falling. Overall ARPU in the US mobile industry decreased by an estimated USD 0.58 in the fourth quarter, with a a 90-cent drop in voice offsetting a 32-cent rise in data ARPU. Data contributed 34 percent to average industry ARPU in the quarter. Verizon led in data ARPU with USD 18.79, followed by AT&T and Sprint. Chetan Sharma expects data revenues to exceed voice revenues in the US market by Q2 2013.