Today’s telecommunications market

How is the telecommunications sector changing? It’s commonplace to say that the advent of the mobile telephone has changed the way we communicate. though this is almostcertainly true, this generalisation conceals deeper movements in a market which is experiencing a revolution in the way businesses and residents source and pay for their phone, web and mobile services.

We don’t have to think far back to when BT almost held the monoploy on the UK telecoms market. In Q3 of 2009, BT’s share of landline calls fell below 50% for the first time ever. BT still holds a considerable advantage. The public trust the brand and BT’s dominance of telephone hardware is still fairly complete, in spite of significant local loop unbundling.

Unbundling has lead to this no longer being the case, and consumers are now blessed with dozens of providers. Many of these offer niche services, for example those targetted to students, particular business types or ethnic groups. Unbundling has also allowed smaller providers, such as Axis Telecom, to increase their market share. Axis keeps its costs down by buying the unbundled call time at wholesale prices – making it possible to pass significant pricing benefits on to its customers.

June 24th, 2010