US Mobile Data Traffic Usage Exceeds Voice 71
MojoKid writes "A report just released states that total mobile data traffic topped mobile voice traffic in the United States last year, for the first time. In fact, globally, data traffic topped voice traffic on a monthly basis last year, and the total traffic across the world exceeded an exabyte for the first time in 2009. Apparently, North America and Western Europe's mobile data markets are growing so rapidly they each should exceed an exabyte sometime in 2010. Interestingly, the nations with the largest data service revenues were: the US, Japan, China, the UK, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Spain and Korea, respectively."
Interestingly? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't find this all that interesting, since this pretty much a list of the world's largest economies in descending order. I'd be much more interested in per subscriber data.
Re:Which is why (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the same lie as with fixed broadband. The (mobile/fixed) operators have limited bandwidth, which is very costly to upgrade, and yet they want to drive increasing revenue through new applications. To put it simply, they don't want you actually using all the services you purchased to the full...for example:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=833011 [macrumors.com]
I love the part where the AT&T drone says "we have to educate our [power] users"; translated as "shit, they're actually using the bandwidth they paid for!"
Re:Voice data is relatively small... (Score:5, Insightful)
We've gone from 'So clear you can hear a pin drop' to "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!"
'Loss in quality' indeed.