ELECTRONIC COMMERCE UPDATE

November/December € 1996

EC Opportunities for Telecommunications

A new study from Killen & Associates (San Francisco, Calif.; www.killen.com), "Electronic Commerce: Opportunities for Telecommunications Companies," forecasts that by the year 2000 electronic commerce will create a $98 billion opportunity for telecommunications services companies.

This figure includes a $65 billion Network Information Services (NIS) market, a $22 billion EC Support Services market, and a $10.5 billion EC Transactions and Payment Services market. Aggressive telcos are now partnering and positioning to compete for these markets.

Besides identifying the emerging EC opportunities for telcos in all major world markets, the study ranks and describes the EC strategies of 17 telcos, including: Ameritech, ANS (an AOL company), AT&T, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Hong Kong Telecom, MCI, NTT (Japanese), NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, SBC, Singapore Telecom, Sprint, and US West.

"By the year 2000, 7.5 percent of all purchases will be made electronically over the Internet," said Karl Duffy, director, Telecommunications Services Communications. "That is equal to roughly $600 billion worth of goods and services. Financial institutions will execute 7 billion electronic payment transactions worth $10.5 billion in transaction fees alone."

The study defines:

NIS -- including credit reports, financial market quotations, credit card authorizations, and ATM services, that support EC and Electronic Financial Services (EFS).
EC Support Services -- which refers to software, training, consulting, Web site set-up, intranet services, security, and other services that facilitate the use of the Internet and other online networks for EC.
EC Transactions and Payments -- procurements (business) and payment (consumer) using primarily Internet and other on-line services standards for PCs, screen phones, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

Electronic Commerce Update Search Engine

Click here to return to Table of Contents for the Electronic Commerce Update November/December issue.