Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are set to increase their spending on wireless data services by 42 percent from 2010 to 2015, according to In-Stat (News - Alert).

US SOHO businesses (small office and home office businesses with 1 to 4 employees) will lead the category, increasing spending by over 46 percent on wireless data from 2010 to 2015.

The growth is significant as small businesses currently account for two-thirds of all new jobs in America, In-Stat said in its survey called, “US Business Spending by Size of Business and Vertical, 2010-2015: Wireless Data, Handsets, and Voice.”

“Voice has become a commodity, with growth in voice services essentially being stagnant across all sizes of business,” said Greg Potter, data analyst, In-Stat, in a statement.

“Messaging has been wonderful to the carriers, but the revenue picture here is stagnant as well, with marginal increases or decreases depending on the size of business. Future growth is all about providing data access to smartphones, tablets, and notebooks, period, end of story,” Potter added.

According to the In-Stat survey, SMB businesses in total (SMB includes SOHO, small and medium businesses) consume about half of all wireless services on a revenue basis. The wireless data consumption increases to three-fourths when corporate liable expenditures are considered.

Total handset spending is expected to increase more than 10 percent from 2010 to 2015.

The construction vertical segment will be the key segment for wireless data. It will spend 120 million in the wireless device segment in 2012. In 2013, the retail trade segment will spend 2.8 billion in wireless voice services.

In 2010, In-Stat said that the annual growth rate of wireless data spending by US businesses is expected to come down to 2.5 percent during 2013-2014 with the 2009-2010 rate being averaged at 5.2 percent.

As per the research, approximately $27 billion is expected to be spent on wireless data in the year 2010. The research expects the largest decline in the wireless spending to be seen in the utility and manufacturing vertical segments having business size of 10,000+.