TECHNOLOGY - March 26, 1996

Wireless Phone Subscription Up 40%: The 9.6 million new customers reported by the Cellular Telephone Industry Assn. are as many new subscribers as the industry added in its first nine years, President Thomas Wheeler said. Today, 13% of all Americans have wireless phones, the report said. Wireless revenues have also grown, the group said, up 34% to $19 billion from 1994’s $14.2 billion. At the same time, prices to consumers have dropped, the group said. The average monthly bill in 1995 was $51, 9% lower than it was in 1994. Industry spending on equipment and infrastructure came to $5.4 billion in 1995, the report said. That helped create 14,285 new jobs--26% more than the year before.