A Global Outlook

In 2007, for the fourth consecutive year, the global telecom market saw double-digit growth, with the combined markets in Canada, Europe, Middle East/Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific rising 12.5% over 2006. Despite the approaching line saturation in some markets, this kind of growth is possible due in large part to the explosive broadband market, especially when paired with increases in wireless subscribership and per-use revenue. Nonetheless, we're seeing wide disparity between growth rates and return on investment from one part of the world to another, often from country to country. While each of the major global regions faces different circumstances, whether it's changing service models in Europe and Canada, exponentially increasing connectivity in Latin America, or broadband shortfalls in the Middle East, there's a unifying theme for vendors, providers and consumers in all communications markets.

Good information means good investments.

That's why TIA puts so many resources into getting the best market intelligence for our members in this often-unpredictable industry. Good information allows vendors in particular to determine whether the combination of a given market's economic development, regulatory environment and the caliber of existing carriers create an environment in which a relatively rapid return on investment is possible. 

It's why we publish country-specific reports like this year's, which cover Korea and Vietnam -- two countries probably known to the American consumer for reasons other than telecom, but countries with exceptional potential for U.S. manufacturers nonetheless. 

It's why we've spent the whole year parsing out emerging global data trends in the communications industry and will publish them in TIA's 2008 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast, slated for release in early 2008. This year, the international section of the MR&F is bigger, deeper and more detailed than ever before, for good reason: the line between domestic and international is rapidly shrinking, especially in the communications industry.

TIA's expanded international research dovetails perfectly with our yearlong efforts to facilitate smart international policies for our member companies abroad. TIA staff was instrumental in negotiating the telecom terms of the free trade agreements now before Congress; we've been at the forefront of ongoing trade dialogues with India, Brazil, and China; TIA's testimony before the International Trade Commission was cited as a major argument against questionable regulatory decisions in the European Union that violated longstanding World Trade Organization agreements on telecom equipment; and the list goes on. As we work our hardest to open new markets for our members, the intelligence found in the MR&F will give them the tools to follow.

Look for TIA's 2008 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast in February . It's global in its reach, yet, in its electronic format, also available right on your desktop. Because good information means good investments.

Thank you,
Grant Seiffert
President
TIA