North American Mobile Market Consolidation Decreases Operator CAPEX by $2.5 Billion says Pyramid Research -- "The wave of mobile operator consolidation in North America will reduce infrastructure expenditures by $2.5 billion during the 2005-2009 period according to the latest Pyramid Research forecasts. Through the combination of networks, the New Cingular will reduce CAPEX by $5 billion over a five year period compared to AT&T and Cingular�s combined CAPEX projections compiled last year. Similarly, the merger of Canada�s Rogers and Microcell will result in a $170 million decrease in equipment investment. Dampening the impact on equipment sales from market consolidation is greater than expected increases in minutes of use and subscriber uptake. Pyramid concludes, the recent activity is a hit to equipment vendors that can be countered by landing service contracts for network management and other services."
Every executive who has approved a connected product roadmap has made a quiet assumption: the network underneath it will still be there. That assumption is about to be tested at a scale the automotive industry has never faced. The global connected vehicle installed base is heading toward a billion units, and the cellular technology most of those vehicles depend on is scheduled to begin its retirement before the end of the decade. For automakers, fleet operators, insurers, and the telecom carriers that serve them, the question is whether the recurring revenue those services promise can survive a connectivity layer with a shorter life than the vehicle carrying it. How Scale Meets an Expiry Date Omdia research forecasts that the global connected vehicle installed base will surpass 1.05 billion units by 2035, up from 473.7 million in 2025. Few installed bases of any kind more than double in a decade, and this one signals that connectivity is moving from premium differentiator to baseline e...