According to TelecomTV, "T-Mobile USA this morning published the first user statistics for its Wi-Fi fast Internet access service. It shows that 450,000 people paid to use the service over the past three months. The fact that T-Mobile USA, hitherto extremely coy about publishing Wi-Fi user statistics, has now made its last quarter�s figures available is evidence that the carrier believes the technology is being taken up by enough users for to be regarded as a real service with a real potential to make real money. Previously the operator had refused to provide any guidance as to the number of users of its system and services and even now will not give comparative figures that show the difference between the number of users last year and this, leading to inevitable speculation that a twelve months ago its user base consisted of two men and an educated dachshund called Ferdy."
The global streaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing subscriber counts as the primary metric of success. That era is now formally over. New market data from Omdia confirms that the industry has crossed a decisive threshold; one that shifts the competitive playing field from growth-at-all-costs to monetization discipline. For senior executives navigating media, advertising, and technology strategy, the implications extend well beyond entertainment. A Historic Revenue Crossover Online video revenue increased 13.5 percent to $176 billion in 2025, while pay-TV revenue declined 4 percent to $170 billion; marking the first time in the industry's history that streaming has surpassed legacy pay-TV in revenue terms. This is not a rounding error or a statistical artifact; it represents the culmination of more than a decade of structural disruption to the traditional broadcast and cable TV model. Global subscriptions to online video services reached 2.24 billion by the ...