U.S. mobile data revenues grow to $11.3 billion in Q3

Mobile data service revenues in the U.S. grew 5 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q3 to $11.3 billion, a 27 percent year-over-year increase, according to a new report issued by advisory firm Chetan Sharma Consulting. Verizon Wireless and AT&T together accounted for 80 percent of Q3's data revenue increase, with AT&T enjoying a 6 percent quarter-over-quarter revenue increase and Verizon and Sprint following at 5 percent. However, Verizon Wireless' data revenues exceeded $4 billion in the third quarter, just behind longtime global leader NTT DoCoMo of Japan. Chetan Sharma adds that AT&T and Verizon now account for 68 percent of all U.S. market data services revenues and 61.5 percent of the nation's subscriber base.

Overall ARPU decreased by $0.14 in the third quarter--average voice ARPU dropped by $0.57, while average data ARPU grew by $0.43 or 3 percent quarter-over-quarter. Verizon led in blended data ARPU with $15.59, followed by AT&T and Sprint--in addition, Verizon became the first U.S. operator with data exceeding 30 percent of total ARPU. Another Q3 milestone: T-Mobile USA exceeded $10 in data ARPU for the first time, while AT&T experienced a voice ARPU increase ($.03) for the first time in 10 quarters. As of the end of Q3, 67 percent of U.S. subscribers were using some form of data services--consumers now average about 568 messages per month, equating to a message per hour per subscriber. Non-messaging services continue to account for between 50 percent and 65 percent of data revenues for U.S. carriers--the Chetan Sharma report adds that messaging growth did slow during the third quarter, with volume up just 4 percent quarter-over-quarter and revenues increasing 3 percent.

For more on the Chetan Sharma Q3 report:
- read this release
- for complete coverage of the Q3 earnings season, click here