As mobile voice services become increasingly affordable
they are rapidly substituting fixed voice services across Western
Europe, said telecoms research firm
Analysys.
An Analysys report, ahead of next week’s 3GSM Conference in
Barcelona, says the trend is expected to continue.
“Users are increasingly opting for the convenience and
personalisation of mobile phones, even when a cheaper fixed phone
is available,” said Alastair Brydon, co-author of the report.
“Despite falling fixed and mobile prices, overall spend on voice
services is holding up well, as mobile users choose to make more
expensive mobile calls instead of fixed calls,” he said.
The report says fixed–mobile substitution (FMS) is accelerating
and could result in more than half of all voice traffic in Western
Europe originating on mobile phones by the end of 2008. The report
says mobile voice usage already far exceeds that level in Austria,
Finland and Portugal.
The extent of FMS varies widely between countries. The
percentage of households that are mobile-only in Finland is five
times greater than in Sweden. In early 2006 the proportion of total
voice minutes that originated on mobile networks ranged from 18% to
70% across Western Europe.
“Our analysis shows definitively that the affordability of
mobile voice calls is the key factor in the level of FMS in a
particular country,” said report co-author Mark Heath.
“Once mobile pricing becomes affordable, there is little that
fixed operators can do to halt traffic migration. However, some
mobile operators have damaged their revenue by cutting prices too
much.
"Very low pricing is not necessary and mobile operators can
achieve significant traffic migration even with a healthy price
premium over fixed services,” he said.
Mobile predictions for 2007
3GSM World Congress
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