According to a recent report from IDC, during the fourth quarter of 2006 Verizon Wireless edged out its rival to lead in overall ARPU, but Sprint Nextel has regained its leadership position on the coveted data ARPU metric. Sprint Nextel outpaced other carriers with its $8.32 ARPU figure, topping Verizon Wireless' $7.91 average monthly data spend. According to IDC, U.S. wireless subscribers spent a total of $4.8 billion on mobile data in Q4 2006, which made up 13 percent of ARPU on average or $6.74 a month per subscriber.
At last week's CTIA Wireless 2007 show in Orlando, John Burris, vice president of wireless data at Sprint, told FierceWireless that he is committed to maintaining Sprint's leadership in data. He also noted that the carrier is working to improve the user experience and make pricing simpler to understand.
For more on Sprint's leadership position on data ARPU:
- see this report from RCR News