To ensure the relaying of authentic information on to our readers, we rely only on FCC as a source of data. Since FCC has updated only upto FY 2007, we too are going to stick to 2007 as the sunset point.

The total wireless subscriber base of the United States as of December 2007, were 263 million units, up from 241.8 million subscribers at the end of December, 2006.

Proportionately, AT&T accounts for 70,052000 of the total subscribers, making it the largest operator of the country. It’s followed by Verizon Wireless with 65,707,000 subscribers, Sprint Nextel with 45,329000 subscribers and T-Mobile with 28,685000 subscribers. The remaining 39,827,000 are shared by the other smaller operators of the country.

The subscriber addition for 2007, together with absolute yearly increase of 28.8 million subscribers in 2006 reveals that the country’s mobile telephone subscriber base has grown by 23 percent in the last two years

This year, the country reported the lowest increase in net subscriber addition since 2004 with 21.2 million new add on.

Taking after previous years’ records, its penetration rate surged to 86 percent from the earlier 80 percent at the end of 2006, hence reporting an 8.8 percent subscriber growth.

One can also note that the US has almost doubled its subscriber base in the last five years. Starting with 141.8 million subscribers in 2002, the country in 2007 boasted of 263 million wireless subscribers.

It should be noted that the operators resort to inorganic route as well for growth and hence there is always a photo finish between AT&T and Verizon in the race for No.1.