US Mobile Market Update – Q2 2024

The US wireless market has seen its share of turbulence, with recent times hinting at a cooling trend. But beneath the surface, intriguing currents are at play. Despite the slower growth, and falling net-adds, operators had yet another $50B service revenue quarter and postpaid revenue continues to show positive growth.

If we step back and look at the last 5 years, esp. since the 5G launch, we see a continued march towards more revenue and net-adds reversing the trend of the prior years. This is the best set of 3 years the industry has had in 16 years.

T-Mobile stayed number one in marketcap at the end of Q2. It was followed by China Mobile, Verizon, Comcast and AT&T rounding out the top 5.

T-Mobile added more postpaid net-adds than AT&T and Verizon combined. T-Mobile also dominated postpaid phone net-adds.

FWA in the US is on track to hit $10 Billion in cumulative revenue by the end of the year.

Cable co broadband net-adds have been completely decimated by FWA in the last two years. It is a case study worthy of Clayton Christensen’s attention. The cable companies suffered yet another worst net-adds quarter in history.

Mobile is providing some respite to the cable giants as their base passed 16M subs. Charter and Comcast have become the defacto top 2 of the tier-2 operators. Charter is a clear number four on sub and revenue counts. Comcast is now number five.

US picked up pace on the 5G front and kept its lead with China in percentage penetration. US has also outpaced China in 5G revenue by a good margin. However, China has made significant strides in the 5G enterprise segment, and its deployments are more sophisticated. India has picked up significant pace of its 5G deployment and the data consumption in India remains higher than both US and China. India crossed US in total 5G subs.

Topics covered in the research update.

  • Q2 2024 US Mobile Market Highlights
  • 2024: State of the industry and looking forward
  • 5G’s steady advance
  • FWA Revenues
  • FWA vs. Cable Broadband – What does the rest of 2024 looks like?
  • Tier 2 Rankings
  • AI’s impact on the network
  • Tug of War: Broadband vs. Mobile
  • 5G Monetization: What can the West learn from the East?
  • Opex: The Silent Killer
  • Global 5G Race Update
  • 5G: Truth, Lies, and Narratives
  • Getting 6G Right
  • What to Expect in the Coming Months?
  • US Wireless Market Q2 2024 Analysis
    • Service Revenues
    • ARPU
    • Subscribers
    • Competition
    • 5G Progress
    • Fixed Wireless Progress
    • Handsets