2024 Annual Survey Highlights

Record Demand for Wireless Data

Demand for wireless data continued to skyrocket in 2023, with Americans using more than 100 trillion MBs-enough data for every single U.S. household to watch the first season of House of the Dragon every day for the entire year.

100T MB of data is nearly double the amount of data used just two years ago and represents the largest single-year increase in wireless data ever -26 trillion MBs-a 36% increase over 2022. In fact, Americans used more wireless data in 2023 than they did from 2010 to 2018 combined.

This explosion of wireless data demand reflects the increasingly central role 5G plays in day-to-day life- from 5G home broadband to connected healthcare, autonomous transportation, and advanced manufacturing. And this growth is projected to continue, with Ericsson predicting Americans' data use will increase by more than 3X by 2029.

Wireless Connections and 5G Devices

5G is increasingly embedded into the way Americans live and work. Today, nearly 40% of all wireless devices-from phones to smartwatches, IoT devices, and more-have a 5G connection, a 34% increase over 2022. This growth helped propel the total number of wireless connections to 558 million, more than 1.6 wireless connections for every American.

Wireless Investment Powers America

The wireless industry invests billions of dollars every year to build, upgrade, and maintain
its networks, including $30 billion last year alone. Wireless carriers have invested $705 billion to date-and $190 billion of that investment has been spent since 2018, the year 5G was launched.

This investment fuels American economic competitiveness as the wireless industry delivers reliable, resilient, and secure connectivity to Americans from coast to coast. In fact, since 2020, America's wireless industry has been the second largest investor in America's economy.

More Cell Sites Support More Demand

To support the skyrocketing demand for 5G, the wireless industry continues to build out more cell sites, the physical backbone of our nation's wireless networks. By the end of 2023, there were 432,469 operational cell sites across the U.S.- a 24% increase since pivotal wireless siting reforms were enacted in 2018.

5G Home Broadband Continues to Bridge the Digital Divide

Today, thanks to 5G, more Americans than ever before have a real choice in how to connect at home, and they're using that freedom to select 5G home broadband. Over the past two years, 95% of net new broadband subscribers chose 5G home service-and importantly, 1 out of 5 net 5G home adds were entirely new home broadband subscribers, underscoring 5G's role in helping to close the digital divide.

Wireless Costs Less While Consumers Use More

America's wireless customers continue to get more for less. Today, Americans pay $.002 per MB of wireless data-a 97% decrease from a decade prior and a 50% decrease since 2020, when the average cost of consumer goods and services began to soar.

In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that prices for consumer goods and services such as cable, electricity, and food and beverages have all jumped up to 10% since 2020, while the cost of wireless service has decreased 1% and smartphone prices have dropped 16%.

Voice and Text

Americans continue to rely heavily on voice, SMS, and MMS messaging to keep in touch. Last year, Americans exchanged over 2.1 trillion SMS and MMS messages, or more than 67,000
messages every second. Americans also collectively spent more than 2.4 trillion minutes talking on
the phone-enough time to listen to Beyoncé's full Cowboy Carter album 31 billion times.