Infographics Website: No wifi No problem

Smartphones have become one of the most popular devices in the United States, running off of wireless subscription services that keep users connected to the world around them. There are more wireless subscriptions in the United States than there are people—approximately 326.4 million subscriptions are in use across the country.

Powered by radio signals, these devices are used in virtually every household and are the ideal tool for keeping their users in contact with what matters to them—friends, family, and the increasingly connected globe. Wireless subscriptions allow users to perform endless amounts of tasks, aided by the ever expanding technology, including smartphones with large screens by Samsung, such as the Galaxy S6, that allow users to watch HD videos or video chat in real time with family and friends across the globe.

Before the boom in smartphone popularity, however, wireless subscriptions were not nearly so popular. The first radio telephone service, which debuted in 1946, was so rare and difficult to tap into, it costs users upwards of $190 per month, or around $5 per call—a gargantuan cost for a service that wasn’t always guaranteed to work. Once analog radio waves became more commonplace, the first smartphone was created to use them and ran at about 1G. In 1995, wireless subscriptions finally reached 30 million and, over a decade later in 2009, over 91 percent of the US population used wireless networks.

As we move further into the 21st century, the wireless subscription service will no doubt continue to draw users, and the connectivity is provides makes it one of the most important technological advances in use today. Read on to find out about how wireless subscriptions can help you stay connected, even when there’s no WiFi for you to use!