No Signs of Slowing Down in the North American Mobile Economy

A new GSMA study entitled “The Mobile Economy: North America 2016” finds that mobile technologies contributed $710 billion in economic activity (3.6% of GDP) to North America in 2015 and will grow to almost $1 trillion in economic activity (4.5 of GDP) in 2020.

Here are some of the key findings regarding mobile technologies in North America:

• In 2015, the mobile ecosystem supported 2.3 million jobs.

• In 2015, the number of unique subscribers was 284 million and the mobile economy had a penetration rate of 79%. By the end of 2020, those figures are expected to grow to 315 million and 85%, respectively.

• In 2015, smartphones represented 74% of mobile connections and 4G represented 55% of mobile connections.

• Venture-capital investments in mobile and telecommunication services totaled $16.5 billion in 2015, a 41% increase from 2014.

• The mobile economy will invest nearly $170 billion in spectrum and network deployment from 2015 to 2020.

• In 2015, the mobile economy raised $82 billion in the form of general taxation and an additional $46 billion in government revenues from spectrum auctions.

There are no signs of slowing down in the North American mobile economy. Despite the FCC’s Open Internet Order, which imposed substantial regulatory costs on mobile broadband providers, the GSMA study shows that competition and innovation in the mobile economy will create more benefits than the FCC’s regulations will create costs. That being said, the regulatory costs are very burdensome and the mobile economy likely would grow even faster if not for the FCC’s unnecessary regulations.