Revenue growth for cable system operators hinges on pushing telecom services into businesses

MOUNTAIN LAKES, USA: Over the next five years, the US cable TV industry is expected to generate nearly $700 million in new revenue by providing telecommunications services to small, medium and large enterprises, according to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corp.

While this new revenue stream appears substantial, it is only a tiny fraction of the $130 billion spent annually by businesses on telecommunications services.

Insight Research's market analysis study, "Cable TV Operators, Telecom Services, and the Push into the Enterprise 2010-2015" points out that the residential market, the stronghold on the cable TV industry, is actually the smallest segment of the US telecommunications market with annual revenue of $65 billion.

Commercial services are far and away the largest segment with annual revenue of $130 billion, wireless represents $75 billion in annual revenue, and video, which only recently is being counted as a segment of the telecommunications business, represents a $70 billion annual revenue opportunity.

"While their legacy has been in providing services to residential markets, the greatest opportunity ahead for the cable TV industry lies in grabbing share in the enterprise segment and providing telecom services to over 7 million potential business locations throughout the US," says Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research.

"Our study suggests that continued cable industry consolidation will actually strengthen their ability to compete as larger systems with broader footprints, uniform services, and improved performance match the capabilities the telco have long provided," Rosenberg concluded.

"Cable TV Operators, Telecom Services, and the Push into the Enterprise 2010-2015" segments revenue estimates for telco and cable operators providing basic voice, data, and video services offered to the small, medium and large enterprise business segments. Detailed revenue estimates are provided for DOCSIS-based services, Ethernet, private lines, voice services, web hosting, optical transport, and video.