Churnabout

To every season, churn, churn, churn… The FCC issued an order that will allow users to port their landline telephone numbers to their wireless phone on Nov. 24 in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. The ruling means that traditional local and long-distance voice service providers may lose up to $14 billion in annual revenue after wireline-to-wireless porting goes into effect, analysts say. Those that stand to lose the most are providers, such as MCI, that do not have wireless service offerings of their own, and some regional Bell operating companies that will lose access line revenue. Analysts expect about 19 million users will switch providers. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1111fccorder.html

To every season, churn, churn, churn… The FCC issued an order that will allow users to port their landline telephone numbers to their wireless phone on Nov. 24 in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. The ruling means that traditional local and long-distance voice service providers may lose up to $14 billion in annual revenue after wireline-to-wireless porting goes into effect, analysts say. Those that stand to lose the most are providers, such as MCI, that do not have wireless service offerings of their own, and some regional Bell operating companies that will lose access line revenue. Analysts expect about 19 million users will switch providers.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1111fccorder.html

The signs are there – improved earnings, awarded contracts, significant growth in tech-heavy markets, upbeat speak during quarterly conference calls – but are things really turning around? Carriers may not spend their entire capex budgets this year, and 2004 capex is expected to be less than 2003. Marry that to increased competition and pricing pressure, and a discouraging regulatory environment and viola! Despite the silver linings, some still see the clouds; despite the clouds, some see the silver linings.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1110recovery.html

Speaking of spending, service providers are increasing their investments in IP, Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS), broadband and metro Ethernet despite a lean capex environment, according to recent finding by Infonetics Research. The firm found that 62% to 81% of the service providers it interviewed are doing so in the next year, and that IP/MPLS traffic will grow 118% on average between 2002 and 2003, and into 2004. Also, the percentage of respondents doing some form of data network convergence over IP or IP/MPLS rises from 62% now to 86% in 2004.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0310bellspending.html