The 2021 annual survey of the wireless industry conducted by CTIA details steadily increasing investment, rapidly expanding 5G deployments, and a robust response to the spike in demand driven by COVID-19.
Released by CTIA on July 27, 2021, the 2021 Annual Survey Highlights present a compelling portrayal of progress and performance during a year over which the pandemic cast a heavy shadow.
A few highlights:
- Private investment in mobile networks increased for the third consecutive year, reaching a five-year high of $30 billion. Capital expenditures to date exceed $600 billion.
- 5G networks were deployed at a pace exceeding that achieved by 4G networks and in 2020 covered 300 million Americans, compared to only 200 million twelve months prior. First launched in 2019, 5G already is available to 90 percent of the country.
- In the last two years, mobile carriers constructed nearly 68,000 new cell sites, an achievement facilitated by wireless infrastructure reforms implemented by the FCC.
- Total mobile data consumption exceeded 42 trillion megabytes in 2020, an increase of more than 200 percent since 2016. Over the past decade, mobile data traffic has grown by a factor of 108.
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