U.S. mobile data traffic nearly doubled in 2013, report says

Faster Internet, faster smartphones and bigger screens means U.S. mobile users are going online with their phones more than ever before -- nearly twice as much in 2012, to be exact.

On average, U.S. mobile users consumed about 1.2 gigabytes of data per month in 2013, the New York Times reported, citing wireless carrier consultant Chetan Sharma. By comparison, U.S. mobile users were only using about 690 megabytes of data per month in 2012.

Globally, data use has also gone up on average, but not as drastically as in the U.S. this year. In 2013, the average global mobile user consumed 240 megabytes of data per month, compared to 140 megabytes per month in 2012.

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Driving the growing data use is carriers’ faster LTE networks along with the use of popular apps that require users to consume more data.

LTE is the latest version of carrier network technology that is available in the U.S. It allows users to go online at much faster speeds than they could using 4G or 3G networks in past years.

Meanwhile, apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and Vine -- which require users to download numerous photos and videos -- are also driving the amount of data that consumers are using.

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