Australia - Analysis - The telecoms market moving into 2008

Synopsis

Telstra’s dominance and anti-competitive actions are having a devastating effect on the industry. With the global debate moving in the direction of structural industry changes, the ACCC doesn’t have the regulatory powers needed to enforce the structural changes. The increased speeds that are now becoming available on our broadband networks are going to drive broadband in the direction of infrastructure to support a growing number of key services such as health care, education, social networks and consumer-based content services. However, serious mass market developments in the mobile wireless broadband market are not expected until 2010-2012. The market is moving towards digital media, device-based services and Internet business models, but the industry is hanging onto outdated models – they have failed to implement true triple play models. Instead they are trying to protect their innovative but outdated pricing strategies. This report indicates where the market will move to in 2008, and what (and who) will be the winners and losers.