Telecommunications industry


The telecommunications industries within the sector of information and communication technology is made up of all telecommunications/telephone companies and internet service providers and plays the crucial role in the evolution of mobile communications and the information society.
Traditional telephone calls continue to be the industry's biggest revenue generator, but thanks to advances in network technology, telecom today is less about voice and increasingly about text and images.
High-speed internet access for computer-based data applications such as broadband information services and interactive entertainment, is pervasive. Digital subscriber line is the main broadband telecom technology. The fastest growth comes from services delivered over mobile networks.
Insight Research projects that telecommunications services revenue worldwide will grow from $2.2 trillion in 2015 to $2.4 trillion in 2019.

Market segmentation

Of all the customer markets, residential and small business markets are the toughest. With hundreds of players in the market, competitors rely heavily on price; success rests largely on brand name strength and investment in efficient billing systems. The corporate market remains the industry's favorite. Big corporate customers are concerned mostly about the quality and reliability of their telephone calls and data delivery while being less price-sensitive than residential customers. Multinationals, spend heavily on telecom infrastructure and premium services like high-security private networks and videoconferencing. Network connectivity can also be provided to other telecom companies by wholesaling circuits to heavy network users like internet service providers and large corporations.

Value chain

Global players

Mergers and Acquisitions

Around 24,800 M&A deals have been conducted in the Telecommunication Industry with either the acquirer or the target company coming from the Telecommunications sector. In total over 5.712 bil. USD have been spent on M&A between 1985 and 2018 in this industry. There has only been one big M&A wave around 1999 and 2000. In most other industry there are three waves between 1990 and 2018. Since 1999 deal value shrunk by -90.12% and is expected to stagnate in 2018.
Here is a list of the top 10 Telecommunication deals in history ranked by volume:
Date AnnouncedAcquiror NameAcquiror Mid IndustryAcquiror NationTarget NameTarget Mid IndustryTarget NationValue of Transaction
11/14/1999Vodafone AirTouch PLCWirelessUnited KingdomMannesmann AGWirelessGermany202,785.13
09/02/2013Verizon Communications IncTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesVerizon Wireless IncWirelessUnited States130,298.32
03/05/2006AT&T IncWirelessUnited StatesBellSouth CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited States72,671.00
05/11/1998SBC Communications IncTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesAmeritech CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited States62,592.54
01/15/1999Vodafone Group PLCWirelessUnited KingdomAirTouch Communications IncTelecommunications ServicesUnited States60,286.87
01/26/2000ShareholdersOther FinancialsCanadaNortel Networks CorpTelecommunications EquipmentCanada59,973.57
06/14/1999Qwest Commun Intl IncTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesUS WEST IncOther TelecomUnited States56,307.03
06/24/1998AT&T CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesTele-Communications IncCableUnited States53,592.49
07/28/1998Bell Atlantic CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesGTE CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited States53,414.58
04/22/1999AT&T CorpTelecommunications ServicesUnited StatesMediaOne Group IncCableUnited States49,278.87

Societies