Posted: 05th Feb, 2004 By: MarkJ
Research group Point Topic has reported that the days of generous broadband ADSL price cuts could finally be over as the industry begins to level off:
"There is every reason for suppliers of broadband to hold their prices," said Point Topic principal analyst Tim Johnson. "None of them are exactly making money. There is not much new competition in sight -- competitors have established themselves and settled down."
The study analysed monthly rentals for entry-level ADSL services from 18 operators in Europe, the US and Asia for the fourth quarter of 2003. Only six -- Bell Canada, SBC, NTT, Yahoo Japan, France Telecom and BT -- reduced their charges in Q4; others maintained their prices.
The picture was different earlier in the year. Using the prices of Q1 of 2001 as a baseline, Point Topic found that on average prices went up slightly in 2001 and then levelled off before falling sharply in mid-2003.We doubt it means an end to competitively targeted cuts by individual providers, yet the last price cut of any overall significance in the residential market occurred sometime ago. More @
ZDNet.