Report: North America now leads on data ARPU

North American subscribers now generate the highest monthly ARPU from mobile data services worldwide, rising to $8.90 in the second quarter, reports business intelligence firm Informa. That's in comparison to the $7 monthly average posted by Western European subs. Overall, North American data ARPU grew 43 percent between Q2 2006 and Q2 2007. Informa cites demand for all-you-can-eat data packages, accelerating year-over-year 3G growth and increasing SMS traffic for the spike. AT&T posted 5 million WCDMA subscriptions at the end of June, compared to 250,000 a year earlier, pushing total North American 3G subscriptions past the 38 million mark--at the same time, the total number of text messages sent more than doubled year-on-year to 93.7 billion, equivalent to 120 per subscriber per month. Total North American data revenues amounted to $6.97 billion in the second quarter, a 66 percent year-on-year increase.

For more on the Informa report:
- read this release

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