What is of major concern of most service providers? The concern most service providers have is where and when the landline or voice business will end up. Voice, having been around for a long time is fast becoming a dinosaur. How can service providers continue in a profitable business whilst landline services keep declining?

The progressive provider has to be inventive. If a telecommunications business only provides landline business its life will be short. They must be:

Providing total solutions. This is the way to go if service providers want to survive in the long term.
Providing a large range of products that they can supply to the consumer as a start.

Wireless, broadband, SMS and other services that the customer needs and wants are clearly essential. And, the old faithful mobile phone still has some life in it yet.

All indications are that the mobile phone business in Australia will continue to grow. The Australian market is fast approaching saturation point with present mobile phone users approaching 90% of the population. Even though the trend is slowing, providers still expect 2 million new mobile users over the next three years. This leaves no doubt that the market is alive and well.

To secure market share there has been some exceptional deals from Service Providers. This is to ensure they secure customers. Many providers are bundling more products together as part of the deal. They on sell products to their customers in the hope of securing a steady but strong growth in their database.

It appears customers like the prepaid option of mobile phones. Prepaid subscriptions have increased since mid 2004 and are growing steadily. Prepaid mobile services are very appealing. In Australia the prepaid services have been slower on the uptake than our neighbouring countries.

However, its now catching on fast. Both Vodafone and Hutchinson have secured customers because of the benefits of their capped plans and pricing strategies. Customers dont like monthly fees or built in contracts.

Make no mistake about it. Mobiles havent been the saviour that was expected. Wireless broadband is becoming very popular and indications are that it could take over this market leaving behind 3G technology.

3G technologies were going to provide a range of data and multi-media services. In the late 80s and early 90s broadband wasnt a major threat like it is now.

For the consumer, there couldnt be a better time to shop around. The deals and prices for telecommunications services have never been as good as they are now. Whatever the consumer wants there is a deal to suit them.