Making an argument that the measure of ‘dominant’ in a telecom ma...
Making an argument that the measure of “dominant” in a telecom market shouldn’t be limited to a company’s share of “plain old telephone service” (POTS), SBC told FCC staff in an ex parte meeting Oct. 13 that numerous other…
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measurements challenge this traditional approach. Data from outside market research firms show there are 4 other factors that should be taken into consideration in determining dominance, SBC said in a report given out at the meeting: (1) Changing consumer behavior. “Consumers increasingly use multiple forms of devices, networks, connections and applications to communicate,” with wireless and the Internet emerging as “preferred communications methods,” SBC said. (2) Revenue share. Consumers are spending on new communications services at the expense of POTS, SBC said. Nationally, 22 providers have a revenue share of the consumer communications market of greater than 1% and none has more than 9%, SBC said. (3) POTS displacement by VoIP, wireless and other advanced services. About 5% of households in SBC’s territory now use only wireless for their voice service, SBC said. (4) Pricing trends. “Competition in the communication market prevents any one provider from being able to exercise control over the market price, which has been reflected in decreasing average revenue per customer,” SBC said. The average household bill has dropped to $45 from $52 for a package of local and long distance service and to $31 from $51 for broadband data products, the report said.