North America played a leading role in the development of mobile commerce and social platforms and similarly has been a driver of innovation in emerging technologies such as blockchain and the potential disruptive power of Fintech.

North America also is one of the most mature mobile markets, with high rates of subscriber penetration, mobile broadband and smartphone adoption, and strong levels of usage.

Canada is less mature than the US in terms of subscriber penetration and will grow at 3.1% annually to 2020, compared to 2.0% growth in the US.

• North American unique mobile subscribers totaled 284 million in 2015 with a penetration rate of 79% and it’s expected to reach 315 million in 2020.
• At the end of 2015, there were just over 1.3 SIM cards for every person in North America, reflecting the relative lack of prepaid in the region. Connection penetration in the US stood at 103% at the end of 2015.
• In Canada, the SIM ratio was lower, at just under 1.2, giving a connection penetration rate of just 84%.
• Smartphone adoption has now reached more than 75% of connections in North America and will continue to expand albeit at a slower pace than recently.
• Nearly 60% of connections in North America were on 4G in June 2016.
• In North America, Canada has the highest average network speeds (25.9 Mbps for upload & 8.5 Mbps for download, followed by US (20.1 Mbps for upload & 8.0 Mbps for download).
• 32% of American adults already watch free video online every day (and 69% at least monthly) while a further 19% watch paid-for content daily (and a majority do at least once monthly).
• In the 18-34 age ranges, more than 90% watch free video daily and more than 70% watch paid-for content.

A Graph Shows The North American Mobile Market.