Cross-border telephone traffic grew 14% in 2007 and is estimated to have grown 12% in 2008, to 384 billion minutes. Due to declining call prices, however, revenues have largely been flat. While international telephone traffic is increasing at a modest pace, Skype’s international traffic has soared: TeleGeography estimates that Skype’s cross-border traffic grew approximately 41% in 2008, to 33 billion minutes, equivalent to 8% of combined international telephone traffic, TeleGeography says.
Average Brit spends 7 hours 9 minutes watching TV
Every day in 2007, an average UK consumer spent 7 hours and 9 minutes watching TV, on the phone, using the internet or using other telecom services, Ofcom reports. But the average UK household spend on communications in 2007 was 93.63 pounds a month – a fall of 1.53 pounds on 2006. TV remains the most popular pastime, with the average person watching for 3 hours and 38 minutes a day in 2007.
US small businesses to spend $280 bln on IT by 2012
US businesses are expected to spend $688 bln on information and communications technology in 2008. Small businesses will boost ICT budgets by up to 8% a year, spending $280 bln by 2012, Compass Intelligence says.
35.3 mln cable and 29.7 mln DSL subscribers in the US in Q2 2008
The 20 largest cable and telephone companies added a net 887,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in Q2 2008, according to Leichtman Research Group. Cable companies now have 35.3 mln broadband customers, compared with 29.7 mln at the phone companies. AT&T remains the country’s largest Internet service provider, with 14.7 mln customers, ahead of Comcast with 14.4 mln.
Total spending in network services to reach $9.1 bln in 2012 in Asia
According to IDC, over 70% of respondents in markets such as Australia, China, and India indicated that solutions pertaining to the network were either important or very important. Total spending in Network services (which includes Network Consulting & Integration Services (NCIS) and Network Management (NM)) will grow from $4.7 bln in 2007 to $9.1 bln in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2007-2012. This bids well for companies such as IBM, HP, and Dimension Data (including Datacraft), ranked by IDC as the top players (in terms of revenue) in APEJ for the calendar year 2007.
Telecom spending to reach $923.91 bln in 2008
Total communications spending is projected to increase 5.4% to $923.91 bln in 2008, as strong gains in the institutional and alternative media sectors offset the downward pressure of declining traditional advertising spending, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson. The industry’s primary growth driver in 2008 is the institutional sector, particularly professional & business information services and education & training media. Institutional media spending is expected to increase 8.5% to $245.39 bln in 2008. Total spending on communications will continue to outpace U.S. economic growth during the 2007-2012 period, increasing at a 6.2% CAGR compared with a 5.6% CAGR for nominal GDP. Communications will be the second-fastest growing of the 15 U.S. economic sectors during the forecast period and will exceed $1 trln in 2010, with spending reaching $1.183 trln in 2012, according to the VSS Forecast.
4.2 mln Internet users signed up for fiber in Q1 2008
Fiber providers added 4.2 mln customers in Q1 2008, while 2.5 mln customers signed up for cable modems, according to Point Topic. The bulk of the new fiber subscribers are in China, where 2.5 mln signed up, for a total of 16.7 mln. US is in #4 place after Japan and Korea. Point Topic counted 303,000 new US fiber customers, for a total of 2.6 mln.
EMEA router market generated $1.01 bln in Q1 2008.
The router market in EMEA continued to grow in Q1 2008. The enterprise router market grew by 8.4% from $933 mln in 4Q 2007 to $1.01 bln in Q1 2008, according to IDC. Compared to Q1 2007, the router market achieved a revenue increase of 15% from $879 mln to $1.01 bln in Q1 2008. High-end router sales went up by 13% from $589 mln to $665 mln in Q1 2008, driven by service providers investing in offering new services such as IP television (IPTV) and video on demand (VoD) to their end customers. SOHO segment reported the highest decline of 10.3% from $38 mln to $34 mln in Q1 2008.
44% of North American ISP traffic is peer-to-peer
P2P applications represent 44% of all bandwidth consumed on networks operated by North American Internet service providers, up from around 41% in 2007, according to Sandvine.
US cable companies added 1.19 mln new broadband subscribers in Q1 2008
Largest cable companies in the US added 1.19 mln broadband subscribers in Q1 2008, according to Leichtman Research Group. Phone companies added 1.01 mln DSL customers in Q1 2008. Since Q3 2004, phone companies had been adding subscribers faster than cable, closing in on cable’s lead in total subscribers. But that lead is now widening, with cable companies having a total of 34.7 mln subscribers compared with 29.5 mln at the phone companies.