Merger fever hits telecoms market

Telecoms providers are merging to boost market share rather than trying to win customers in an overcrowded market, according to Canalys.

In its latest report on the market in the third quarter of 2003 the analyst firm found that the total EMEA enterprise telephony market grew by six per cent in the past quarter, with the bulk coming from Russia and the Middle East.

Siemens finished the quarter as market leader with 17 per cent share, followed by Alcatel with 15 per cent.

But Avaya's acquisition of Tenovis, and the announcement by Aastra of its intentions to buy EADS Telecom, signified a major shift in an overcrowded marketplace, the study noted.

Providers will increasingly look to buy competitors rather than find new customers when there are already too many providers, Canalys predicted.

"There are still too many vendors in EMEA and further acquisitions are inevitable," said Alessandra Fitzpatrick, Canalys director and senior analyst.

"Those that do not have good IP strategies in place, and focus too heavily on box shifting and too little on applications, will struggle."

Meanwhile, the report points to steady growth in the IP telephony market. Line shipments were up 55 per cent on the same period last year and accounted for one in eight of all enterprise telephony lines shipped in EMEA during the quarter, with Cisco leading the sector.

See also:

Avaya hit with class action lawsuit

Shareholder group alleges IP firm 'misrepresented' cost of Tenovis merger  03 May 2005

Telcos speed up fixed-mobile convergence

Barriers between wireless and wired services being eliminated  10 Dec 2004

BT fires up entertainment division

BT Entertainment to promote on-demand music, gaming, TV and movies  29 Nov 2004

VoIP rings death knell for traditional telephony

Internet calls predicted to take 13 per cent of the market by 2008  04 Nov 2004

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