 by over 13%. It was observed that traditional text messaging too declined by the same percentage (Figure 3-2). Average voice minutes per subscription per month Figure 3-2. Average voice minutes It has to be noted that this study is based on iPhone usage patterns alone. Also, the trend of similar data usage is being observed across high-end smartphones in Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, independent of network operators and across different networks. It does appear that newer smartphones, which allow higher data rates to be enabled, coupled with newer OTT applications make subscriber data usage trends more uniform. Elsewhere, as illustrated in another study, the trend is that data are becoming the premium service along with decreasing voice spend(http://www.worldwideworx.com/mobile-data/). Average user cell phone spending has increased from 8% to 12% over an 18-monthperiod.Andvoicespendduring the same period went down from 77% to 73%. The demography of mobile subscribers also plays a crucial role in a trend of decline in voice usage. This is shown by a recent survey of mobile data usage by teens in the United States http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/ newswire/2011/new-mobile-obsession-u-s-teens-triple-data-usage.html). Average mobile data usage has increased by 256% for teens and shows a definite increase across all age groups in general, as shown in Figure 3-3. Monthly Data Usage by Age (MB) Q3, 2010 vs. Q3, 2011 % increase +256% +147% +118% +133% +126% +133% 13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 Q3, 2010 Q3, 2011 Source Nielsen nielsen Figure 3-3. Monthly data usage by age CHAPTER 3 DEPLOYMENT CHALLENGES IN EVOLVING 4G Not surprisingly, voice usage went down for the same group by 17%, from an average of 685 minutes to minutes. Most of the respondents attributed this to messaging being "faster, easier and being more fun." Growth of Internet and Smartphone Usage Across the World As a running theme in the telecom landscape, consumer growth patterns and traffic growth continue to be driven strongly by a