"For months, wireless carriers have been working hard to prepare for what could be an unprecedented Inauguration week," said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Steve Largent
President & CEO
CTIA

"Companies are going to extraordinary lengths investing significant amounts of time and money, and are doing everything within their power to boost network capacities in Washington, D.C. for this historic event."

To prepare for the crowds and huge spikes in wireless traffic, carriers are adding more technicians to monitor their networks and work with government agencies involved in the Inauguration events.

They are also taking steps to address capacity issues, including adding new radio channels to augment existing cell sites, provisioning additional portable sites and enhancing in – building wireless coverage at key locations throughout Washington, D.C.

"Despite all the industry’s efforts to increase network capacity, it’s really important for the public to understand that unusually large crowds can generate congestion and communications delays," Largent continued.  "Think of a wireless network like a highway.  Even though we’re building more lanes, if millions of people jump on the road at the same time, there could be a traffic jam."

"For this reason, we want to remind Inaugural event attendees to do their part in decreasing network demand by texting instead of placing voice calls, and holding off on sending cell phone pictures or video until after the events are over."  

Wireless data revenues now account for 20 percent of all wireless service revenues, and represent money that people spend on non-voice services.

The survey found that text messaging again set new records, with 75 billion messages reported in the month of June, an average of about 2.5 billion messages a day. This is an increase of 160 percent over the 28.8 billion messages in June 2007.

Wireless subscribers continue to capture and send more pictures and other multi-media messages, more than 5.6 billion MMS messages in the first half of 2008, almost as many as were sent in all of 2007.

As of June 2008, there were more than 262 million wireless users. This is a year-over-year increase of close to 20 million subscribers. The 12-month record for subscriber growth was reached in 2005, when 25.7 million new users came online.

Wireless customers used more than 1.12 trillion minutes in the first half of 2008, up 10.9 percent over the first half of 2007, and generated more than $72 billion in total wireless revenue in six months.

"These statistics prove that wireless service in today’s marketplace means so much more to American consumers than just voice-calls," said Steve Largent, CTIA-The Wireless Association President and CEO.

"More and more people are using wireless devices to access the Internet, take photos, get directions, watch videos, download music and send text messages. But this is just the beginning. When wireless customers want even more from their handsets and networks, the industry will continue to respond, evolve, innovate, and deliver to meet this growing demand."