Telecom Insiders Rank Industry's Challenges - Report

Industry experts foresee slow recovery for troubled telecommunications markets despite many serious challenges, and rank its priorities, in the "Telecom Outlook Report: Millennial Edition" (TOR), a new report from The Center for Telecommunications Management (CTM). The CTM, at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, in collaboration with the International Engineering Consortium, surveyed senior-level executives in 96 communications firms and organizations, government authorities, and analysts in the United States, Asia and Europe to compile the study. Findings shed light on how telecom companies can best position themselves to take advantage of market opportunities.

"TOR focuses intensively on the application level of the telecommunications industry," said Elizabeth Fife, editor and CTM's Senior Research Analyst. "It takes an in-depth look at the new services and applications in the residential and corporate market; wireless; e-commerce; globalization and the new telecom environment; mergers and alliances; research and development; the internal organization of firms; and the technologies and applications that may drive future revenue streams."

Among key findings: 42% of experts judge 3G implementation in the U.S. will not be a driver of wireless technologies, 82% believe growth hinges on improved performance and service quality and 90% of industry experts see the continued growth of the Internet as the most important driver of the telecom industry, followed by opening local access markets, liberalization and increasing competition.

In the aftermath of 9/11, many companies turned to video conferencing as a substitute for face-to-face interactions that require travel. Fife commented, "For the video conferencing market to advance most agree that bandwidth is required, in addition to increases in processing power, and new combinations of services through video over IP. Less than 50% surveyed see any substantial growth by 2003, and I believe that's still true."

Posted to the site on 12th November 2001