The telecoms industry will return to historic growth patterns beginning in 2004, says a new market analysis report from Insight Research. According to the study, worldwide telecommunications services revenue is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of eight percent from 2004 to 2009, which reflects the level of sustainable growth enjoyed by the telecom segment prior to the market explosion of the late 90s.
While the past few years were brutal for the telecommunications industry, The 2004 Telecom Industry Review: An Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts predicts that worldwide telecoms industry services revenue will grow from US$1.2 billion ($1.62 billion) in 2004 to US$1.8 billion ($2.43 billion) in 2009, bringing an end to the industry slump. The study examines the underlying reasons for the recent slump, and highlights rapidly growing industry segments such as VoIP, WiFi and streaming media, technological innovations in fibre optics, DWDM and WDM. “The malaise of the past few years is finally beginning to dissipate, and while we see a return to historic levels of growth industry-wide, we anticipate that growth will be uneven across various geographic regions and product types,” says Insight Research president Robert Rosenberg.
“[For example] wireless communications will continue to displace wireline communications for voice calling - and as the number of wireless 2.5G and 3G data services increases, wireless will continue to squeeze traditional land line calling,” Rosenberg concludes.