Join TMIA in Toronto September 22 to 24, 2008

Don't miss the 11th Annual Fall Conference September 22nd to 24th at the Toronto Renaissance Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For details click here

A Unique Venue
TMIA is very pleased to be hosted in a headquarter city of TMIA members Bell Canada, Rogers and TELUS and excited that we have obtained a unique venue for the conference. The Renaissance Downtown is the world's only four-diamond hotel that is actually located in a major league sports venue. Our hotel is in the outfield of the Rogers Center, the home park of the Toronto Blue Jays. In addition it is adjacent to the CN tower, still the worlds tallest building, containing the world's highest and largest revolving restaurant.The conference will begin with a networking reception on Monday evening, September 22nd through Wednesday evening September 24th.

Guests are Always Welcome
As always, representatives from non-member companies are invited to attend as guests in order to learn more about TMIA and assess a membership for their organizations. Please feel free to invite anyone who might benefit from the opportunities for learning and networking that TMIA provides.


As usual the agenda will include a wide range of messaging topics from data and voice; wireless and wireline.
Click here for more details of the conference and registration.

 

A Historical Look at Messaging Convergence
Did you know the first fax was sent in 1843? Voicemail, Fax and the Internet are technologies that have been around for decades but individually did not have the huge adoption we see today until the 90's and beyond. Complimentary technologies like IP are now driving the convergence of messaging media in 2005 and beyond. Click here to see TMIA's evolution banner depicting the history of these media.

 

Abandon? Substitute? Misnomer?

How many times have you seen the terms wireline abandonment and wireless substitution used in describing those subscribers operating with only a cell in the household. Rather than cutting the cord, many of these individuals never had the cord to begin with, at least in the USA.

Click on the chart above and you will see that by far those operating with a cell only are in the 18 to 25 year age range. They have not abandoned or substituted wireline. They have gone away to college and brought their cellphone to use as primary service. When they graduate, often (at least initially) they do not subscribe to wireline service but continue as a wireless household.

When you look at the older age groups you do not see the dramatic change in behavior that you see in the 18 to 25 age group and to a lesser extent 26 to 35.

Some other interesting data which indicates wireless is a compliment to wireline service rather than a substitute at this point in time:

  • From TMIA's 2007 survey 85.7% of families with children have a home phone rising to 89.2% with children 13 years of age and older.
  • On the same survey 83% of respondents with wireless in the household also had a home phone.
  • From the latest FCC competition report (data to 06-30-2006) while the total wireline market decreased by 6% from 2003 (and don't forget this includes the loss of second lines) wireless lines increased by 48% over the same period.

While technology will enable more households to cut the cord, I am very interested in the emergence of feature rich IP screen phones that will become the messaging center of the household "community". Wireline will change, but dead? Don't bet on it.

TMIA now has an excellent library of data like the chart above for member companies through 5 years of research in the USA and 3 years in Canada. Have a question? Just ask.

 
 
 

Featured White Paper
May 2008


Voice SMS
Author: Intervoice

Mobile phone communication has rapidly evolved from direct, real-time voice interaction to a suite of non-voice and indirect means of wireless communication, including Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS) and Instant Messaging (IM). However, many people are not comfortable with these methods and prefer to use their handsets only for direct, spoken communication. A new feature, Voice SMS, fills the gap between voice and indirect/non-voice communication by combining today's newest indirect interaction with the advantages of speech.


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