AT&T’s planned $67 billion purchase of BellSouth would be one of the biggest mergers in U.S. telecom history, and the largest globally since Vodafone succeeded with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann in 2000 (see Figure 1 below).

However, despite the size of the merger, statistics compiled each quarter in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database show that the combined companies would still rank behind several global rivals in subscribers and revenue.

While the new AT&T would become the largest operator in the U.S. by customers in each of the country’s wireline, wireless, and broadband markets, on a global scale it would rank behind several others. Among wireline operators, it would be the third largest behind China Telecom and China Netcom. It would be only the ninth largest wireless operator behind multinational groups such as Vodafone. Though in second place as a broadband operator, the new AT&T would have only one-third of the broadband subscriber base of China Telecom. Further, in terms of revenue, the new AT&T ($69.4 billion in 2005) would still have some way to go before overtaking Japanese giant NTT ($99.9 billion).

Figure 1: Biggest Telecom Deals Each Year since 1998

This information is drawn from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database service, which provides continually updated coverage of more than 1,000 telecom operators in over 160 countries worldwide. To learn more, please visit our website:

http://www.telegeography.com/products/global_comms

An annual snapshot of the information from the GlobalComms Database is also available in the GlobalComms Regional Telecommunications Yearbooks, which provide surveys of six global regions. New editions of the Yearbooks were released last week. More details are available here:

http://www.telegeography.com/products/yearbooks

2005 was a banner year for growth in the US Voice-over-IP (VoIP) market. Total subscribers grew 248 percent from 1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2004 to 4.5 million subscribers at the end of 2005, according to the latest quarterly update to TeleGeography’s US VoIP Report. Even more impressive was operator revenue growth of over 300 percent, from less than $200 million in 2004 to over $1 billion in 2005. TeleGeography projects that by 2010, almost 19 million VoBB lines will be in service. This growth will largely come at the expense of incumbent telephone companies.Much of this past year’s growth has been driven by continued strong performance from market leaders Vonage and Time Warner. Cablevision and recent market entrant Comcast round out the top four operators. Cable companies account for 52 percent of the market, with Enhanced Service Providers (such as Vonage) covering 37 percent of the marketplace. The remainder of the market is served by telecommunications carriers like AT&T and Verizon.

About TeleGeography’s US VoIP Report

The US VoIP Report provides quarterly updates of the US consumer VoIP market, including carrier competition, revenues, and market growth. In addition, the Report includes analysis of consumer preferences based on primary research as well as regulatory and technical reviews. To learn more about this area of research and related services, please visit our web site:

http://www.telegeography.com/products/us_voip/