Survey Shows Big-Time Growth in 2022 for 5G Devices and Home Broadband

On July 25, CTIA released its 2023 Annual Survey. Survey highlights are posted on CTIA's website. It shows the remarkable growth in wireless services that took place in the U.S. during 2022.  

The survey highlights show that 2022 was a record-breaking year for wireless data traffic growth, as U.S. wireless networks supported 73.7 billion MB of traffic last year. That total was 20 trillion MB – or 38% more – than in 2021. Total wireless traffic for 2017 was 15.7 trillion MB. Additionally, annual wireless investment climbed to an industry record $39 billion in 2022, up from $35 billion in 2021. This marks the continuation of a series of annual increases in capital investment, going back to 2017, when annual investment totaled $26 billion. According to CTIA, over its history (presumably dating back to the early 1990s), the wireless industry has invested over $675 billion.

CTIA's 2022 Survey Highlights also revealed stunning growth in wireless connectivity, especially for 5G devices. At year's-end 2022, there were about 523 million connected wireless devices and 162 million active 5G devices. Those numbers are up significantly from 2021, when connected wireless devices totaled 499 million and active 5G devices totaled 86 million. Between the end of 2021 and 2022, here was a near doubling of 5G connected devices. 

The survey also shows that 2022 was a huge year for 5G home broadband. According to the survey highlights, 5G home broadband now covers more than 94 million U.S. households, and that 5G home broadband accounted for 90% of net broadband additions last year. The survey also contains 2022 figures regarding small cells, price per MB, and text. 

The continuing success of wireless services in the U.S. owes, in significant part, to a pro-investment, pro-competition, light-touch regulatory policy that dates back to the early 1990s.  Thirty years ago, Congress authorized competitive bidding spectrum license auctions and preempted state regulation of rates and entry as well as state and local government permit and zoning decisions on infrastructure citing that have the "effect of prohibiting" wireless services. To ensure the continued success of 5G services in the U.S. Congress should take action in 2023 to advance legislation such as H.R. 3557, the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023, to clear away obstacles to timely infrastructure. Also helpful to promoting broadband deployment, including wireless broadband, are a slate of bipartisan bills for streamlining infrastructure deployment that were passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May of this year and highlighted in a May 24 blog post. And as FSF Senior Fellow Andrew Long explained in a July 21 blog post, "Congress Should Reinstate the FCC's Spectrum Auction Authority" by passing H.R. 3565, the Spectrum Reauthorization Act of 2023.