platforms has adversely affected traditional forms of communications such as
voice, text message and email in the U.K.
The survey finds that forty-five percent of respondents
claimed that social media had caused a decline in their use of email. In addition,
40 percent said that it had reduced their use of fixed voice services, 34
percent said it caused them to make fewer mobile phone calls, and 29 percent
said the number of text messages they send had declined.
The results of our survey show that social media is
negatively impacting all forms of communication provided by telecoms companies.
The trend is being driven by younger age groups. While it could be argued that
younger users will change their habits with age and trend towards the habits of
older users who are more reliant on traditional forms of communication, it
would be naive to assume this. This is because players such as Facebook
are
constantly innovating, and are likely to increase their communications
capabilities,” said Mark Giles, Ovum telecoms senior analyst and co-author of
the report.
Telcos take some steps to defend themselves against the
threat by offering more inclusive minutes and text messages at lower prices.
Some operators have sought to charge a levy on over-the-top applications, such
as Whatsapp and Skype, which reduce operator revenue and use a significant
amount of bandwidth.
The report also finds that functional development and
increasing availability of social networking platforms on mobile devices is
seeing communication via social media eat into more traditional forms of
communication such as voice.
As a result, telco voice and messaging revenues and
telcos’ increasingly outdated pricing models are coming under pressure as a new
wave of substitution threatens to sweep the telecoms market,” said Neha Dharia,
Ovum analyst and co-author of the report.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
