Lass talk, more data on cells

TALKING POINT: Instead of talking on their cellphones, people are making use of all the extras that iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones were also designed to do—browse the web, listen to music, watch TV, play games and send e-mail and text messages, the N.Y. Times reports. The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50% nationwide last year, according to the CTIA, the wireless industry association. And for the first time, the amount of data in text, email messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls. “Originally, talking was the only cellphone application,” Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse told the Times. “But now it’s less than half of the traffic on mobile networks.” He added that that within the next couple of years, cellphone users would be charged by the data they used, not by their voice minutes. When people do talk on their phones, their conversations are shorter; the average length of a local call was 1.81 minutes in 2009, compared with 2.27 minutes in 2008, according to CTIA. (5/15a)