Communications services today are perceived to succeed or fail within months. Within that time, fashion may be more important than economic fundamentals, and long-run patterns can easily be obscured. Historical data helps to provide an alternate view. Consider telephone service in the U.S. in 1927 and 2007. In 1927, telephone service had been widely … Continue reading long-run patterns in communications service adoption
Because large business customers are much larger and more geographically concentrated than large residential customers, business communications services tend to be more competitive than residential communications services. Nonetheless, from 1980 to 2007, business lines rose from 25% to 37% of public switched telephone lines of larger U.S. incumbent local-exchange telephone companies.[1] Over that same period, … Continue reading structural change boosts business communications
In the U.S. in the first half of 2009, 22.7% of households had only wireless telephones. Another 14.7% of households received all or almost all calls on a wireless phone. The share of wireless-only households has increased 2.5 percentage points in only six months.[1] More rapid shift to wireless telephony among younger persons isn’t surprising. … Continue reading rapid but uneven shift away from wireline telephony
Consider some misunderstandings of early U.S. telephone service providers at the start of the twentieth-century: When the Independent [telephone] companies first began to come together in conventions to exchange experiences, one fact was always commented upon with great curiosity by the managers of town or city plants. This was that they invariably met with failure … Continue reading social circumstances shape communications values
Since the beginning of telephone service, telephone rates have depended on how the telephone will be used. In the U.S. in 2007 , flat-rate single-line local telephone service for businesses was priced 90% more than the same telephone service for residential use. The mark-up for business service over residential service has varied from 1989 to … Continue reading telephone rate differentiation