WASHINGTON (Feb. 11) - The U.S. telephone equipment market will grow at an annual rate of 11 percent through the year 2001 after a 13 percent expansion last year, according to a study released Wednesday by a leading equipment manufacturers trade group.
The $106 billion market will hit $162 billion in 2001, the study by the Telecommunications Industry Association said.
''We're in a celebration mode,'' association President Matthew Flanigan said at a press briefing. ''The telecommunications industry is booming.''
Greater use of telecommunications in business and the ever-expanding use of the Internet are driving the growth, Flanigan said. Growth for the industry could accelerate if more competition develops in the local service market, he said.
The financial crisis in Asia is not expected to have a major impact on the industry, the study's authors said.
Trade with the affected Asian countries is substantially smaller than trade with Mexico, which underwent a similar crisis in 1995, economist Arthur Gruen said.
U.S. manufacturers ''were able to ride that through without much problem,'' he said.
The ''lion's share'' of growth in the Asian region will be generated by China, a country not likely to be significantly affected, the study said.
The United States had a net trade surplus in telecommunications equipment of $6.1 billion last year, up from a surplus of $3.6 billion in 1996, the study said. Imports consisted mainly of basic items such as telephone sets and answering machines while exports included high-tech goods such as fiber optics and satellites.
The study forecast that the telephone services market would grow 11 percent annually through 2001 after expanding 11 percent in 1997 to total $300 billion. The fastest growing segment, wireless services, will grow 18 percent a year to hit $63 billion in 2001 from $33 billion last year.
Long-distance revenues are projectd to grow 9 percent per year to reach $140 billion in 2001 from $100 billion last year.
The local market, which totaled $53 billion in 1997, will grow 6 percent a year to hit $67 billion in 2001. Network access charges, the fees paid by long-distance providers to local carriers, will grow just under 4 percent per year to $38 billion from $32 billion in 1997.
Services to support private data communications equipment not part of the public networks will grow fastest, however, expanding at a projected rate of 18 percent a year to total $124 billion in 2001 from $64 billion last year, the study said.
REUTERS Reut13:51 02-11-98 |
