AT&T Says Wireless Data Usage Doubles Yearly

AT&T has recently released their year end statics and the numbers show company has faced yet another doubling of user data consumption.

In his blog post, John Donovan, Senior Executive Vice President—AT&T Technology and Network Operations, said "Running year-end numbers that show the same result as previous years is typically a sign of stability. But when the year-end numbers show a doubling of wireless data traffic from 2010 to 2011 – and you’ve seen at least a doubling every year since 2007 – the implications are profound."

Over the past five years, AT&T’s wireless data traffic has grown 20,000%. The increase in smartphone usage and more sophisticated feature packed applications like Siri are the primary reason behind this steady increase of mobile data. Siri alone is said to nearly double the data usage on the iPhone 4s.

The trend is a global phenomenon not isolated to AT&T, as also detailed by Cisco today with the release of their annual Visual Network Index forecast. AT&T has said they are addressing the challenge by investing to drive service improvements expecting to invest about $20 billion again in 2012 with a focus on wireless, including more 4G LTE deployment, the roll-out of distributed antenna systems in key venues across the U.S. and adding even more AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network.