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the last year that consumer ﬁxed voice revenues are higher than consumer ﬁxed broadband revenues, with the markets reaching $176 billion and $167 billion respectively.

Ovum found that the balance of power will shift in 2012, with the consumer ﬁxed broadband market taking the lead with revenues of $180.5 billion compared to just $158.6 billion for the consumer ﬁxed voice market. In addition, Ovum forecasts that the total number of consumer ﬁxed tele-phone lines will decline by 18 percent between 2011 and 2016, falling from 685 million in 2011 to just 560 million in 2016. In stark contrast, the total number of consumer ﬁxed broadband lines will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 7 percent over the same period, hitting 776 million in 2016.

“Our research reveals the extent to which the ﬁxed voice telecoms market is shrinking and just how important broadband has become to the telecom industry,” Ovum analyst Charlie Davies said.

“Next year, telcos will generate more consumer revenues from ﬁxed broad-band than from telephone lines for the ﬁrst time. This will be driven by con-sumers continuing to shun their landline in favor of the mobile phone and the greater need for ﬁxed broadband in the home to meet the demands of increasing video trafﬁc, more applications and con-tent in the cloud, and more connected devices. The rise of internet-based voice services such as Skype will also play a signiﬁcant role.

“However, broadband revenue growth alone will not be sufﬁcient to offset the decline in ﬁxed voice revenues due to the investment needed for next-genera- 1-888-633-1243 1-888-633-1243