NEW YORK — Average consumption of U.S. mobile data nearly doubled in the past year as cellular networks got faster and smartphone screens got bigger, according to a new report on wireless trends.
Chetan Sharma, a recognized industry expert and consultant for wireless carriers, said that U.S. consumers used an average of 1.2 gigabytes a month over cellular networks this year, up from 690 megabytes a month in 2012, said in the report.
Worldwide, he said, the average consumption was 240 megabytes a month this year, up from 140 megabytes last year.
Sharma noted the ramped up growth in data use could be attributed, at least partly, to the widespread coverage of fourth-generation network technology. That technology called LTE, is 10 times faster than 3G, its predecessor.
He also said the rise was also connected to the popularity of phones with bigger screens, like the newer iPhones or Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, which download larger images.