Research and Markets: In The United States, Recent Years Have Seen a Significant Degree of Consolidation amongst Telecommunications Operators Such As MCI Agreed To Be Acquired By Verizon Communications.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c43088) has announced the addition of United States Telecommunications Market Intelligence Report to their offering

Each extensive Market Intelligence Report includes the following sections: Economic, Social, Political, and Telecoms Indicators; key data presented in tabular form. Regulation; a summary/overview of the market and regulatory climate, followed by synopses of the regulators powers and other competition or ministerial bodies to which it reports or with which it co-operates. A summary of the regulations in force, a list of differences in the types of available licences and a list of the licences issued. Market Indicators; the available data is presented in tabular form with commentary and graphics. Major Operators; contact data and company information, including ownership, background where relevant for pan-European carriers, licensed activities, scope of activities/services, recent major equipment contracts, summary of network status, references to major subsidiaries, joint ventures, and alliances. Major Manufacturers; contact data and company information including ownership, background where relevant, manufacturing & distribution activities, recent major equipment contracts, references to major subsidiaries, joint ventures, and alliances. Industry Associations; contact data and organisation information covering background where relevant, activities/objectives and references to members.

The Chapter Titles include:

1. Country Background

2. Telecommunications Regulation

3. Communications Market Indicators

4. Market Overviews

5. Major Operators

6. Major Manufacturers

7. Industry Associations

In the United States, recent years have seen a significant degree of consolidation amongst operators. Four former regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) now survive from the original seven that were created in 1984 following the break-up of AT&T increased competition and falling demand for core services appears to be prompting further consolidation in the local exchange carrier (ILEC), long-distance, and wireless communications markets. In 2005 alone, Sprint merged with Nextel, ALLTEL merged with Western Wireless before announcing its acquisition of Midwestern Wireless, AT&T was acquired by SBC Communications, and MCI agreed to be acquired by Verizon Communications.

One of the key elements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act was that the RBOCs would be able to enter the intraLATA market that is to offer in-region long-distance services within their service areas. Before RBOCs are able to enter this market, they must satisfy a 14-point checklist designed to ensure that there is sufficient competition in the local market in which they want to operate. Approval to operate is required from the FCC and the relevant state regulator before services can be introduced, and services must be offered by a separate company. FCC approval to offer interLATA long-distance services automatically means that companies are approved to offer information services and to manufacture equipment.

The RBOCs have been petitioning the FCC to allow them to offer in-region long-distance services since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, although it was not until December 1999 that the first approval was granted, to Bell Atlantic (later part of Verizon Communications). The FCC turned down the previous applications on the grounds that all the points of the checklists had not been met; however, the US Court of Appeals finally ruled in August 2000 in Verizon's favour. Since then, Verizon has been allowed to offer long-distance services in all of its other markets, while fellow RBOCs SBC Communications and BellSouth have only recently also been allowed to offer such services in all of their markets; meanwhile, struggling Qwest Communications was only allowed to offer services in all of its 14 states from December 2003.

The global economic slowdown, coupled with the fall in demand for broadband services and advanced offerings, has coincided with a particularly heavy gloom afflicting corporate America as, first one billion-dollar telecommunications giant and then another is subjected to criminal investigations focusing on suspected false accounting. The collapse of a number of new entrants to the north American market in late-2001 and early-2002, including Global Crossing, prompted a detailed investigation into how companies previously considered a financial success could crash so spectacularly. Companies that had had financial or corporate dealings with one another were pulled into the investigation and thus it was that long-distance giant WorldCom could no longer conceal the size of its operating losses behind some extraordinarily inventive accounting. With WorldCom plunging into bankruptcy and other companies such as Qwest being scrutinised ever more closely for missing pieces of their accounts stretching back several years, investor confidence in Americas telecommunications operators hit an all-time low. Operators are now having to temper their ambitious expansion plans with the need to acknowledge their runaway debt piles and to address creditors concerns as quickly as possible.

There have been hundreds of bankruptcies in the telecommunications sector, mostly affecting the ambitious new entrants who had promised to deliver the broadband revolution that the incumbents had already spent the best part of a decade skirting around until the right technology became available at the right place. However, the manufacturing sector has been devastated by the virtual stand-still in orders for broadband equipment, and some of the larger businesses have spent much of the last year closing down or selling off unprofitable or "non-core" operations and assets. Again, the casualty list is high, but the overall effect has been to slim down an already over-crowded market and to focus knowledge and expertise in those companies remaining which will be best able to take advantage of the resurgence in the sector when it eventually comes.

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