Telecommunications

New product introductions, portfolio refreshes, and exciting new form factors helped spur growth in the worldwide mobile phone market during the third quarter of 2005.

Mobile phone service revenues have more than tripled since 1998, roughly keeping pace with growth in the subscriber population. Average monthly bills likewise have increased: after touching a low of $39.43 in December 1998, bills have risen to $50.64 as of December 2004, the best since 1995.

Yankee Group revealed the highly sought after results for its 2005 wireless user surveys. The surveys give an unparalleled picture of the drivers shaping the US and European consumer and business markets and provide insight for carriers, handset manufacturers and other companies involved in the quickly evolving mobile ecosystem.

Yankee Group analysts predicted continued strong growth in the US B2B wireless market at the 2005 Decision Summit, held at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. Fueling the demand is a mass market for B2B wireless products and services comprised of a growing mobile workforce. Almost 40% of all workers in the US can be considered mobile, which translates into nearly 50 million employees.

Yankee Group recognized that family plans have been the main driver of teen cell phone adoption during the past few years. However, going forward, prepaid and hybrid plans will drive future growth. Although those teens on postpaid contracts are increasingly turning to family share plans, on the whole postpaid subscriptions have declined, according to data from Yankee Group’s comprehensive annual surveys of the US mobile consumer market, revealed at the company’s 2005 Decision Summit. A greater proportion of teens are on prepaid/hybrid plans, up 8 percentage points from 2004.

One in ten (9%) U.S. adults have abandoned their traditional telephone service completely and now use their wireless phone exclusively. This trend is expected to grow as five percent of all adults say they are “seriously considering” going exclusively wireless within one year. Another 47 percent say they are “somewhat considering” this switch.

A new eMarketer report examines the consolidation that has swept through Latin American telecommunications markets, dramatically reshaping the competitive landscape.

Lingo, the U.S. Internet phone service provider, became the first VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider to offer unlimited phone calling to Mexico.

LIN TV Corp. announced that WAPA-America, LIN TV’s Hispanic programming service for satellite and cable distribution in the United States, has signed an affiliation agreement with Comcast Cable.