WASHINGTON, DC (Oct. 25, 2000) - Major long distance carriers suffered declines in market share and stagnant or falling revenues in 1999, despite robust growth in telephone call volumes. According to the latest report by TeleGeography, the Washington, D.C.-based research group, international telephone traffic climbed 15 percent to 107.8 billion minutes in 1999, but call prices declined even faster.
The annual report, titled _TeleGeography 2001_, highlights the impact of continued market liberalization, particularly in Europe. Western Europe was the largest regional contributor to traffic growth in 1999, but price declines of up to 90 percent on some routes kept carrier revenues in check. "Incumbent long distance carriers have often borne the brunt of falling prices and the rise of new competitors," said Tim Stronge, Research Director at TeleGeography. "Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT), for example, has lost nearly half of its long distance market share and revenues since the introduction of competition in 1998."
Former monopoly providers continued to lose market share to new competitors, which carried a record 24 percent of telephone call volumes in 1999, up from only 16 percent the previous year. Several multinational carriers now handle more traffic than the incumbent operators of most countries. The combined country operations of multinational carrier Teleglobe (NYSE: TGO) carried over 5 billion minutes of outbound voice traffic in 1999, making it the third-largest global operator, ahead of all but AT&T (NYSE: T) and WorldCom (NASDAQ: WCOM). If World Access (NASDAQ: WAXS) concludes its planned merger with STAR Telecommunications, the company will be the fourth-largest international carrier in the U.S. The top 10 international carriers by origin country, according to TeleGeography, follow below.
Price declines and new competitors were not the only reasons for the rapid growth of call volumes in 1999. Mobile phone usage trends, buoyed by the rise of cross-border roaming, also contributed to greater international telephone traffic levels. International calls placed on mobile phones jumped from eight percent of the world’s total traffic in 1998 to nearly 12 percent in 1999. The strongest increase occurred in South Asia, where 18.9 percent of international calls were made from mobile phones, and where the mobile-to-fixed line ratio is relatively high. North Americans, in contrast, originated less than two percent of their international calls from cellular phones in 1999.
_TeleGeography 2001_ is the 12th annual survey of international telecommunications from TeleGeography, the Washington, D.C. research group. The report provides cross-border call volumes for over 125 countries, plus carrier market shares, Voice-over-IP route rankings, submarine cable and satellite statistics, Internet backbone capacity data, and retail and wholesale call prices.
For more information, please contact:
Jessica Marantz, Marketing & Business Development
Tel: +1 202 467 0853
jmarantz@telegeography.com
Tim Stronge, Research Director
Tel: +1 202 467 0852
tstronge@telegeography.com
Top 10 International Carriers by Origin Country, 1999
Outgoing Traffic
Origin (millions of minutes)
Rank Company Country 1999 1998 Change
1 AT&T U.S. 10,816.5 10,798.5 0.2%
2 WorldCom U.S. 8,294.9 7,195.0 15.3%
3 France Tel. France 4,390.0 3,911.0 12.2%
4 BT U.K. 4,029.1 4,249.3 -5.2%
5 Deutsche Tel. Germ. 3,860.0 4,711.0 -18.1%
6 Sprint U.S. 3,714.4 2,916.0 27.4%
7 C&W Com. U.K. 3,177.0 2,646.2 20.1%
8 Tel. Italia Italy 2,390.6 2,339.4 2.2%
9 Swisscom Switz. 2,259.0 2,258.0 0.0%
10 China Tel. China 1,950.0 1,711.5 13.9%
Note: Traffic figures are for public switched telephone network (PSTN) circuits. Carrier rankings based on originating country minutes only.
