Abstract
Intense Competition Leads to Rapid Price Erosion across Most Verticals of the U.S. Communications
Services Market
The U.S. communications services market is extremely competitive and the presence of a large
number of participants in most communication verticals is generating strong pricing pressures. With
cross-carrier competition continuing to increase, creating a defendable and profitable niche is
becoming extremely difficult. Most verticals have seen average prices falling by over 10.0 percent
annually and as there exist numerous competitors offering similar services, the continued price
erosion due to intensifying competition remains the largest challenge facing market participants.
This Frost & Sullivan research service is an overview of the U.S. communications services
market. It presents an exhaustive study of the wireless, wireline, cable and satellite television,
as well as internet access markets and details where each of these verticals overlap while offering
comparable services to consumers. Further, it includes a thorough end-user analysis section where
historical subscriber numbers and penetration rates for all verticals are included along with
forecasts.
Increasing Trend toward Wireless Replacement of Wireline Services
The most significant development being witnessed in the U.S. communications services market is
the growing trend toward the replacement of wireline with wireless services. Toward the last month
of 2002, customers were endowed with number portability and this resulted in an estimated 8,00,000
consumers switching over to wireless phones from their wireline services. Also, home phone service
penetration rates have peaked and with many consumers replacing their home wirelines with wireless
phone services, wireline services could loose as many as 100.0 million customers by 2010.
"U.S. wireline phone service peaked in 2001 with 192.0 million lines and since then, the
market has been shrinking by about 5.0 million lines a year," says the analyst of this research
service. "Of the top three wireline carriers -- AT&T, MCI, and Sprint -- the first two have
been sold and Sprint is restructuring its operations to include the sale of some of their wireline
business."
Wireless and Internet Access Verticals Show Strong Growth
As a consequence of the continuing shift from wireline to wireless services, the wireless sector
is bound to show maximum growth among the different verticals in the U.S. communication services
market. The wireless sector is likely to increase its subscriber base by over 10.0 percent a year
and internet access should also show a steady growth due to the fast paced replacement of dial-up
connections with broadband services. However, the cable and satellite industry is approaching
saturation with an almost 90.0 percent penetration rate and internet access has the opportunity to
compete with cable and satellite providers for content delivery revenues.
Declining prices are a challenge for the entire U.S. communication services industry and the
replacement of wireline services could well alter the entire landscape of the telecom industry.
"As most telecom services become commoditized, extreme cost-cutting measures are necessary for
most communication services, especially wireline," says the analyst. "In ensuring their
profitability, companies will need to outlast the majority of under-funded, unprofitable competitors
and await price stability."
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