Wired telecommunication carriers: Recent Developments

Telecommunication carriers are companies that provide services such as wireless and fixed telephone communication. Amongst the subcategories in the industry are long and short-term callings, Internet, TV and, of course, fixed lines. The sector is much differentiated in the different countries, which explains why there is not a leading company on the global stage, with one or few smaller ones dominating in each country.

General demand for communication services has increased with rising incomes and especially more demand for business activities. With a lot of R&D activities in the sphere, increased reliability and fast networking have also contributed towards increasing demand. However, it is hard for smaller companies to jump over entry barriers, especially with large economies of scale in infrastructure in the face of market leaders. The US is a very good example for that; as for the different states 50 companies are responsible for almost all of the industry’s revenues.

On the stock markets bigger companies have strengthened their leading positions. Since Asia recently started to show signs of slowing down its performance, investments are starting to flow towards other continents such as Africa, which have a lot of untapped potential. Europe and the US, even though were considered too mature and stable, have surprisingly grown over the last year, attracting more investments from external financing.