PALO ALTO, Calif., March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Emerging technologies and changing competitive dynamics are ushering in new growth opportunities for service providers in the market for bundled communications services. Telecom carriers and cable MSOs who can overcome the challenges and deliver more integrated service experience to customers, will come out as eventual winners in this fast paced and dynamic market.

Frost & Sullivan finds that bundled communications services constituted for more than 48 percent of the total consumer services revenues in the U.S. in 2005 and this is expected to increase to approximately 85 percent by 2012. For Canada, about 33 percent of the total residential services revenues in 2005 came from bundled services and this is expected to increase to over 78 percent by 2012.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the latest analysis of the North American Residential Bundled Services Market, then send an e-mail to Mireya Castilla - Corporate Communications at mireya.castilla@frost.com with the following information: your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city, state and country. We will send you the information via email upon receipt of the above information.

Cable companies have made strong inroads into the voice market using VoIP and now hold over 50 percent residential VoIP subscribers compared to less than 15 percent share held by the telcos. The telcos are responding to this by entering the video space through partnerships with satellite TV companies as well as IPTV launch strategies.

"Changing competitive dynamics are contributing to rapid growth in the bundled communications services market," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Piyush Arora. "Telcos are finding the voice market weakening due to IP substitution and intermodal competition from wireless, while the cable MSOs are reaching saturation in the video services market. Losing the grip in their respective core services market is causing both the telcos and cable companies to encroach each other's market by offering bundled solutions to their customers."

Integrated billing and customer support is a key non-financial benefit touted by bundled service providers. Delivering this benefit however, entails continuous improvements to the service providers' operational and billing support systems (OSS/BSS). As service providers expand the breadth of services that can be bundled together, either through in-house offerings or through partnerships, this presents a complex ongoing challenge to market players all across the spectrum.

"While integrated billing and customer support is becoming the least common denominator that customers expect when they buy service bundles, its absence is a major cause of dissatisfaction and attrition," explains Arora. "Being able to present a single bill and unified customer service interaction requires an overhaul of the current systems and transforming the culture which is built upon delivering discrete, disparate services to customers."

A robust billing and operations support system is a must for any bundled services business model that is effective and scalable. Service providers should implement backend systems that can seamlessly provision and bill the different services that constitute a service bundle. Furthermore, their customer service personnel must be capable of handling customer queries related to any service that is part of a bundle.

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North American Bundled Services Markets F660-63 Contact: Mireya Castilla Corporate Communications - North America P: 210.247.3830 F: 210.348.1003 E: mireya.castilla@frost.com Janina Hillgrub Corporate Communications - Europe P: +49 (0) 69 77 0 33 11 F: +49 (0) 69 23 45 66 E: janina.hillgrub@frost.com Sarah Lourdes Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific P: +603 6204 5878 F: +603 6201 7402 E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com

CONTACT: Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications - North America,
+1-210-247-3830, or fax, +1-210-348-1003, or mireya.castilla@frost.com , or
Janina Hillgrub, Corporate Communications - Europe, +49-0-69-77-0-33-11, or
fax, +49-0-69-23-45-66, or janina.hillgrub@frost.com , or Sarah Lourdes,
Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific, +603-6204-5878, or fax,
+603-6201-7402, or sarah.lourdes@frost.com , all of Frost & Sullivan

Web site: http://www.frost.com/