Informa Sees Global Fixed-Mobile Revenue At $28 Billion By 2011
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Informa, the research company, Tuesday forecast that fixed-mobile convergence services will generate $28 billion in revenue globally by 2011.
Companies such as BT Group and France Telecom are targeting fixed-mobile convergence to shore up customer bases and differentiate themselves from pure wireless operators like Vodafone Group. For BT, converged services can help curtail the loss of fixed-line customers to mobile operators by offering unique and cheaper telecom services to customers.
Informa expects fixed-line operators to drive the take up of such services over the next five years. It estimates that there will be 92 million subscribers to converged services by 2011, 3% of overall global subscriptions.
Paul Merry, senior analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media, told Dow Jones Newswires that fixed-mobile converged services will have a significant impact on the telecoms market over the next five years.
Merry explained that Informa expects pure wireless players like Vodafone to take a cautious approach to fixed-mobile convergence, adopting a passive resistance until convergence really gains steam. He said that Vodafone's recent move to create a new business unit devoted to convergence, without detailing its plans, seemed to be a defensive move.
Key to the take-up of converged services will be the adoption of dual-mode handsets which can access both fixed and mobile networks.
Informa predicts that such handsets will represent 5% of global handset sales - or 47 million units - by 2011.
In terms of regions, Merry said the U.S. will lead the way with 33.2 million subscribers by 2011 compared with 30.6 million in Asia Pacific and 26.2 million in Europe. This is due to a number of reasons, not least that pure-wireless players have less power and interaction with consumers in the U.S. compared with Europe.
Company Web site: Http://www.informa.com
-By Nic Fildes, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; nicolas.fildes@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 18th April 2006
