In the highly competitive mobile communications market, cellular providers continue to offer calling plans that promise large bundles of long distance minutes for flat fees. Consequently, increasing demand for wholesale long distance bandwidth will positively impact pricing and boost revenues.
According to new analysis by Frost & Sullivan, US Wholesale Long Distance Voice Markets, this market generated $12.8 billion in 2000 and could reach $13.2 billion by the end of this year as traditional voice wholesalers strive to meet demands of resellers and facilities-based carriers.
"Expect the wholesale market to become increasingly defined by measurements of capacity, not minutes,“ says Frost & Sullivan research analyst Rod Woodward. ""Full-service providers will offer voice services as only a small part of bundled packages that will include web hosting and data storage. These high-margin managed services should help prices rebound.“
How these services are delivered will likely change in the near future as well. Technological improvements in internet protocol (IP) networking are leading to build-outs of networks optimised for packetised voice. Voice over packet (VoP) will no longer be relegated to the status of being a low-cost, toll-bypass offering for international or prepaid calling. Instead it will be a compelling means of providing next-generation service.
"The wholesale long distance voice market as it is known today is at a crossroads,“ says Woodward. "Pricing per minute, which has steadily declined as competitors flooded the market, will continue to drop throughout the next several years. This drop will accelerate as VoP voice quality continues to improve. Volume is expected to increase slightly throughout the period, but once again, the effects of lower pricing will have a much higher impact than any volume increases.“ u
Frost & Sullivan has its headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. www.frost.com
