According to a new economic study commissioned by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and conducted by Microeconomic Consulting and Research Associates (MiCRA), consumers and small businesses could save a total of $101.5 billion on their phone bills over the next five years as a result of competition from facilities-based providers of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Residential cable telephony consumers could save an average of $135 each year or more by using a cable provider???s telephone service, the study finds.
???Robust facilities-based phone competition is a huge win for American consumers," said Dr. Michael Pelcovits, Principal at MiCRA and lead author of the study. "This study shows that preventing a phone company lock on the market provides residential and small business customers innovative new services at enormous savings. The economic impact of $100 billion of phone savings is truly dramatic.???
The study found that by 2011, nearly 24 million Americans are likely to purchase phone service from their cable companies. The study concludes that the traditional phone companies are compelled to respond to competition by cutting prices???creating yet additional savings for the customers that the incumbent phone companies retain.
Other findings include:
- Comprehensive cable telephony services are priced as low as $34.95 per month, plus approximately $6.00 in taxes and other fees. Comparable services from AT&T and BellSouth cost approximately $50.00 per month, plus fees and taxes.
- Residential users of cable telephone services are estimated to grow from 10.0 million in 2007 to 23.7 million by 2011.
- Residential customers of incumbent telephone companies could save $70 billion over five years if incumbent telephone companies are forced to respond to the competitive challenge by facilities-based VoIP providers.
For more details on the survey's findings, check out the NCTA press release New economic study shows substantial economic benefit of facilities-based phone competition.
