Fixed-mobile convergence services will generate $28 billion in revenues globally by 2011, a report from Informa, quoted by Dow Jones, said.
The report said according to the research firm, companies such as BT Group and France Telecom are targeting fixed-mobile convergence to shore up customer bases and differentiate themselves from pure wireless operators like Vodafone Group. For BT, converged services can help curtail the loss of fixed-line customers to mobile operators by offering unique and cheaper telecom services to customers, the report said.
Informa expects fixed-line operators to drive the take up of such services over the next five years. It estimates that there will be 92 million subscribers to converged services by 2011, 3% of overall global subscriptions.
In terms of regions, the report said the US will lead the way with 33.2 million subscribers by 2011 compared with 30.6 million in Asia Pacific and 26.2 million in Europe. This is due to a number of reasons, not least that pure-wireless players have less power and interaction with consumers in the US compared with Europe.
Key to the take-up of converged services will be the adoption of dual-mode handsets which can access both fixed and mobile networks, the report said.
Informa predicts that such handsets will represent 5% of global handset sales, or 47 million units, by 2011, the report further said.