EuropeIreland : TIn terms of total revenue, the UK telecommunications market was worth GBP 29.16bn in the year ending March 2005. Over the past year (2004/2005) market growth was slowed by radically altering price structures in the market. Pressures on prices to be competitive, new regulations on pricing, and the introduction of new technologies all served to hinder market growth. Any growth has tended to come from new sectors and emerging niche markets such as Internet and broadband services, short message service (SMS) messaging and mobile content.

This report looks mainly at the market for end-user spending on telecommunications services, which can be split into three sectors: cellular or mobile services revenue (revenue from mobile telephone usage); fixed-line revenue (revenue generated from calls to fixed-line handsets and exchange lines); and other end-user spending (including revenue from Internet, broadband, and other business data services).

Cellular services now account for the largest sector of the total market. While the revenue generated from basic fixed-line telephony declines, profits from mobile, Internet and data traffic continue to increase. However, even the mobile sector is now showing signs of maturity, with the strongest growth restricted to niche areas such as new third-generation (3G) services.

The telecommunications market is highly regulated and the main regulatory body, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), is now undertaking a strategic review of the market.

In the coming 5 years, cellular and data services (especially Internet protocol (IP) networks) are expected to continue to grow at a much stronger rate than the rest of the telecommunications market. Key growth areas will be video messaging, video alerts and video telephony (in the mobile sector), asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL) and fixed-line video telephony (in the fixed-line sector) and broadband and ADSL services in general.

Convergence between mobile and fixed-line services is expected to be a growing theme in the market, with companies such as British Telecommunications (BT) already introducing hybrid fixed-and-mobile handsets and services.

This report looks at

- Market Definition
- Market Size
- Industry Background
- Competitor Analysis
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
- Buying Behaviour
- Current Issues
- The Global Market
- Forecasts
- Company Profiles

Companies mentioned:

- BT Group PLC
- Cable and Wireless PLC
- France Telecom
- Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd
- ntl Group Ltd
- O2 PLC
- T-Mobile Ltd
- Vodafone Group PLC
- Mmo2 Plc
- Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd
- Telewest Communications Group Ltd

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c31245