Competition Among The Telecommunications Industry

Competition Among The Telecommunications Industry

There are currently 807 companies in the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) database of companies. Of the 807 companies, 251 of them currently offer wireless services. Also 281 offer broadband services, of those offering broadband 160 of them offer cable, 72 offer DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), and 49 offer T-Carriers. There are currently 242 member companies in the MMTA (Multimedia Telecommunications Association) Database of companies. Of those 242, 70 of them offer broadband services. Of those 70 15 offer DSL, 24 offer Cable, and 31 offer T-Carriers. Also among those 242 in the MMTA’s database 60 companies offer Wireless services. In a worldwide Yahoo!® search, 224 companies offered Broadband, 227 offered Satellite services, 295 offered Long distance and 533 offered Wireless.

The U.S. long-distance market is worth an estimated $100 billion to $110 billion per year. The largest long-distance carriers in the U.S. are AT&T, MCI WorldCom, Sprint, Excel (now part of Teleglobe Canada), and Frontier (with a merger pending with Global Crossing). AT&T, MCI WorldCom, and Sprint control the bulk of the U.S. long-distance market, but competition is increasing from the other carriers. The U.S. local telecommunications market is worth somewhere in the range of US$100 billion to US$120 billion and is still over 95% controlled by the RBOCs and incumbent local exchange companies. The competitive local exchange carriers and other competing companies hold about 4% to 5% of the market. There are now only five RBOCs, those being Bell Atlantic (having acquired NYNEX), SBC (having acquired Pacific Telesis), BellSouth, U S WEST, and Ameritech. Soon we may be down to four RBOCs, if the FCC and other regulatory bodies approve the pending merger of SBC and Ameritech.

It has become extremely difficult to segment voice and data traffic services and revenues in the U.S. market. Voice traffic has historically always represented the bulk of the traffic and revenues in the telecommunications market; however, recent estimates are that voice traffic is growing at a very low (single-digit) percentage rate, while data traffic may be growing at a rate as high as 200% to 300% per year.

The cable television/video delivery services part of the telecommunications industry includes the traditional (wired) cable TV providers, wireless cable TV providers, and satellite TV providers.

The traditional (wired) cable TV industry serves about 65 million U.S. households, with the five largest cable multiple system operators (MSOs)--AT&T (via TCI), Time Warner, Comcast/MediaOne (whose merger is pending), Adelphia, and Cox Communications--serving nearly 45 million of those households.