The article begins: “You pay too much to use the phone. You do, really.” It then shows how much the telecommunication costs for a typical household has been increasing. A large part of this increase is due to the fact that households has to have old style telecommunications along with modern style ones, and this is basically doubling the cost for households. The article also shows how the launch of 3G could reduce these costs in the future.
analysis: The pattern emerging is of an accumulated demand from consumers of telecommunications that is modern, efficient, and low cost at the same time. Paired with the pattern of an increasing number of partially interchangeable technologies and infrastructures this creates a building up of market tension that sooner or later will be released in a chaotic flooding of telecom markets all over the world. Expect a chaotic mix of price wars and the launch of a continuos flow of new product with both better performance and lower price. Expect this to continue for the next 30 years, and don’t expect any of todays telecom operators to be around when it ends, at least not as telecom operators.