Spending on business
data services in Europe will plateau at around £20bn in 2008,
says telecoms analyst
Analysys.
The slowing market will put pressure on service providers,
forcing them to either innovate or consolidate to stay in business,
said Analysys.
Customers may also be in good position to negotiate better deals
as a result.
"Competitive pressures on suppliers and the emergence of
Ethernet as an access technology for metropolitan area networks
(Man) and wireless area networks (Wan) means that companies
continue to get more bandwidth for the same money at every
upgrade," says Margaret Hopkins of Analysys.
"Service providers have to find new ways to generate revenue or
else they must consolidate to survive," she said.
An Analysys report on the market said companies are "bewildered"
by
the maze of data service offerings for Man and Wan, and are
turning to systems integrators for impartial advice. This is
leading to a loss of managed services business for telecoms service
providers.
In addition, data customers need reassurance about the move to
next-generation networks. Users are not yet convinced that
next-generation networks will offer the security and reliability
that they have long been able to expect from their legacy data
networks, according to the report.