On Tuesday, John Donovan, Senior Executive Vice President of AT&T, said that AT&T continues to see the wireless data volume on its network double annually.
“Running year-end numbers that show the same result as previous years is typically a sign of stability,” Donovan said, “but when the year-end numbers show a doubling of wireless data traffic from 2010 to 2011 – and you’ve seen at least a doubling every year since 2007 – the implications are profound.”
The growth, as observed by AT&T, is now driven primarily by smartphones. Add to that new customer additions and the continuing trend of upgrades from feature phones to smartphones, and you have a “wireless data tsunami.”
“At AT&T,” Donovan says, “we’re addressing the challenge by investing to drive service improvements. AT&T has invested more than $95 billion in its wireless and wireline networks over the past five years. In 2011, we invested $20 billion in our networks, and completed more than 150,000 wireless network improvements. And we expect to invest about $20 billion again in 2012 with a focus on wireless, including more 4G LTE deployment, the roll-out of distributed antenna systems in key venues across the U.S. and adding even more AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network.”
All told, over the past five years, AT&T’s wireless data traffic has grown 20,000%.
