Over 207 Mln U.S. Cell Phone Users in 2005

By Geoff Duncan April 7, 2006

A new survey (PDF) from the The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) announced this week that during 2005, the population of mobile phone users in the U.S. grew by some 25.7 million, pushing the total number of American mobile phone users to 207.9 million. The 14 percent increase marks a record single-year jump in the number of U.S. cell phone users and flies in the face of predictions the growth of the mobile phone market would be flat or even decline in the United States.

The survey also found that some six percent of U.S. households have ditched their landlines in favor of mobile-only telephone service, and that the average local monthly bill actually declined from $50.64 to $49.98 between 2004 and 2005. (The lowest average monthly bill was $39.43 in 1998.)

Total mobile phone revenues also increased with the number of U.S. cellular users, rising from just under $53 billion in 2004 to $57.8 billion in 2005, an increase of nearly 10 percent. Minutes used by mobile phone users increase on average 35.8 percent a year, with 2005 topping out at over 1.4 trillion mobile minutes.

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