VoIP, wireless and broadband services all had a massive impact on the telecom market in Florida last year, driving competition and fueling revenues. A new report from the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) shows that consumers in the state are steadily migrating from traditional PSTN service to wireless and cable VoIP solutions.
The “Report on the State of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry” reveals that residential wireline service has been on decline in Florida over the past decade, dropping by 78 percent, the equivalent of around six million lines. Wireline service usage among businesses dropped 17 percent just last year alone, and the Commission attributes that to the massive uptake in wireless services. Conversely, there were more than 18.9 million wireless subscribers in the state last year, nearly the entire population of Florida.
The statistics on VoIP are promising as well. The report shows that last year there were an estimated 2.8 million residential interconnected VoIP subscribers in the state. Interestingly, while AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon (News - Alert) were the largest ILECs in Florida, they all reported decreases in subscribers last year. That reflects a national trend of companies like AT&T and Verizon showing losses in traditional voice access lines while reporting gains with their other services offerings. These providers all offer facilities-based VoIP services over fiber, and this has proven to be a growth area for these telcos. AT&T (News - Alert) gained around 4.8 million U-verse voice subscribers nationally by the end of last year, a 24 percent increase over the previous year. And Verizon gained around 4.6 million FiOS (News - Alert) Digital Voice Subscribers during the same period, an eight percent increase from the previous year.
“Telecommunications competition in Florida is flourishing and that benefits consumers,” said Art Graham, chairman of the PSC. “We’re on track for continued healthy competition in this industry as well as a growing Florida economy – great news for the state’s consumers.”
According to the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association, there are around 2.8 million residential interconnected VoIP subscribers in Florida and that number is expected to grow in line with other non-wireline voice services.