More Cell Phones than People in US

Posted by

Last updated April 12, 2019

There are more new and old cell phones in the United States than there are people, according to a new study. Figures released by CTIA – The Wireless Association, which is a trade group which represents wireless providers, as a part of its latest yearly survey shows that there are now around 327.6 million cell phones in the United States, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam – yet the total human population of all of those places is only 315.5 million, meaning that cell phones now outnumber human beings by around 12.1 million.

The number of subscriber connections has also increased over the course of the last year, by as much as nine percent, while the amount of wireless network data traffic has increased by as half as much again and the number of active wireless-enabled PDAs and SmartPhones has risen to 95.8 million from 61.2 million, an increase of 57 percent in just 12 months.

The bad news is that this means wireless providers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint may now be facing a maturing market where everyone who wants a cell phone already has one and are using the same amount of data every month and thus not increasing their bills, facts that could end up meaning higher rates for consumers as these companies struggle to increase their revenue.

The chief executive officer of CTIA, Steve Largent, sees no such problem however, saying that he expects demand to increase by around 50 percent over the course of the next five years.