The OECD has released its Communications Outlook for year 2007
The main conclusions are as follows:
- Voice continues to be the key driver in OECD telecommunication markets
- Mobile subscribers outnumber fixed subscribers by a
ratio of 3 to 1 - Rise of importance of Voice over Internet Protocolo (VoIP), mainly due to rise of broadband adoption, and pressing down prizes on voice services
- Blurring of market barriers: e.g. voice no more tied to fixed analogue lines, but can be accessed through fixed analogue lines, but also through broadband, mobile lines, etc.
- Blurring of market barriers, multiplicity of offers, blurring of regulation.
- Rise of local wireless networks fostered by local administrations.
- Shift from paying for voice to paying for data; shift from paying for data to flat-rate pricing based on bandwidth quality instead of data traffic.
- Trend to lower broadband prizes for better quality.
- Shift of subscription of communication services provided outside the boundaries of a citizen’s country and delivered over the Internet: more pressure on regulation changes.
- Telecommunication trade continues to grow in the OECD area
and now accounts for 2.2% of all trade. - China is one of the five emerging countries in the group known as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa). ICT spending in the BRICS economies increased by more than 19% a year
Summing up:
- The importance of broadband — the new leading factor of the digital divide.
- The pressure on sector and international regulation — the new arena of the debate to achieve harmonization, inside and outside boundaries.
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