FCC Releases Local Telephone Competition Report

This report summarizes the information collected about telephone services as of June 30, 2012. It demonstrates continued growth in subscribership to interconnected VoIP and mobile telephony services and continued decline in subscribership to traditional wired telephone services. Retail local telephone service customers are served by two wireline technologies – “end-user” switched access lines and interconnected VoIP “subscriptions” – and by mobile wireless subscriptions.

• In June 2012, there were 102 million end-user switched access lines in service, 39 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 303 million mobile subscriptions in the United States, or 444 million retail local telephone service connections in total.
• Over the three-year period presented in Figure 1, interconnected VoIP subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of 18%, mobile telephony subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of 5%, and retail switched access lines declined at about 9% a year.
• Of the 141 million wireline retail local telephone service connections (including both switched access lines and interconnected VoIP subscriptions) in June 2012, 81 million (or 57%) were residential connections and 60 million (or 43%) were business connections.
• Cross-classified by technology and customer type, the 141 million wireline retail local telephone service connections in June 2012 were: 34% residential switched access lines, 38% business switched access lines, 23% residential interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 5% business interconnected VoIP subscriptions.