Skip to main content

Europeans Have Meaningful Telecom Options

According to In-Stat's latest in-depth assessment, the U.S. and European telecom markets are diverging at a rapid pace.

In Europe, regulatory policies force incumbent operators to manage their network infrastructure separately from their retail services. Next-generation network facilities, even fiber-to-the-home connections, are available to all competitors on an equal basis. The result is thriving competition in most consumer market segments.

In 2006, European incumbent operators lost a combined 10 million fixed-line subscribers. During the year, over 14 million consumer households converted to VoIP, with the incumbent operators adding nearly 3 million VoIP subscribers. This is what substantive innovation can do, and it's what real competition does to change the status quo -- more choice, and lower prices.

Across Europe there is a growing sense of urgency, in terms of building next-generation networks, introducing new services and winning the customer's preference. The urgency is exemplified by the recently negotiated settlement between Deutsche Telekom and union workers that calls for a 6 percent pay cut, and a longer work week.

In contrast, the U.S. consumer telecom market lacks significant competition. Competitive service providers do not have access to the incumbent's next-generation network infrastructure. The former RBOCs lost a combined 4.5 million fixed-lines in 2006, yet, accounted for less than 300,000 of the total 4.4 million VoIP subscribers added during the year.

Cable operators continue to market VoIP as plain-old-telephone service and the RBOCs do not even include VoIP in their triple-play service bundles. If the consumer VoIP market is representative of the future telecom industry, the U.S. consumers may be the big losers.

In-Stat believes that one cannot criticize U.S. wireline and cable operators for capitalizing on a duopoly market that the FCC bestowed upon them to maximize ARPU and introduce new technology in a time-frame they dictate. But there is no guarantee that consumers will always look to these incumbent operators for voice service.

The farther the U.S. falls behind in next-generation consumer services, the greater the opportunity for market alternatives. If and when these options eventually reach the market, then -- and only then -- will Americans truly experience something similar to the vibrant European telecom services marketplace.

In-Stat's soon-to-be published research report entitled "Europe Leads the Booming Consumer VoIP Market," examines the development of consumer VoIP markets worldwide. The report provides an in-depth analysis of consumer VoIP markets by geographic region and postulates about global VoIP's long-term future.

Popular posts from this blog

AI-Driven Data Center Liquid Cooling Demand

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperscale cloud computing is fundamentally reshaping data center infrastructure, and liquid cooling is emerging as an indispensable solution. As traditional air-cooled systems reach their physical limits, the IT industry is under pressure to adopt more efficient thermal management strategies to meet growing demands, while complying with stringent environmental regulations. Liquid Cooling Market Development The latest ABI Research analysis reveals momentum in liquid cooling adoption. Installations are forecast to quadruple between 2023 and 2030. The market will reach $3.7 billion in value by the decade's end, with a CAGR of 22 percent. The urgency behind these numbers becomes clear when examining energy metrics: liquid cooling systems demonstrate 40 percent greater energy efficiency when compared to conventional air-cooling architectures, while simultaneously enabling ~300-500 percent increases in computational density per rac...