Dynamic Data Market
The communications industry
has made sweeping changes over the last few years. Not too long ago, this
was a slow growth industry with nice, neat boundaries separating the
industry's key players. Things have certainly changed.
We are now in a dynamic and fast-paced competitive environment.
While deregulation of the industry has played a considerable role in the
changes in the U.S. and abroad, it has also been the rise of technologies
that enable companies and people around the world to affordably exchange
voice and data communications in ways they could not have imagined only a
few years ago.
One of the fastest growing communications markets is data service.
The incredible demand for data and Internet services has resulted in
telecom carriers building networks optimized to handle data traffic. Voice
services account for about 90 percent of industry communications revenues,
yet data accounts for more than one-half of the industry traffic and is
trending up. Analysts project the U.S. data market will grow 40 percent
annually from $25 billion in 1999 to $66 billion in 2003.
With $7.5 billion of data revenue in 1999, a solid market share and
a network with unsurpassed depth and breadth, WorldCom is ideally poised
to capitalize on this fast-growing area of opportunity that is expected to
grow to nearly half of all telecom revenue by 2003.
WorldCom is the preeminent data and Internet company for the new
e-conomy. It offers one of the most extensive data and Internet service
portfolios in the industry, including private line, frame relay, ATM
(asynchronous transfer mode) network colocation services and a complete
suite of industry leading Internet services through UUNET, WorldCom's
wholly-owned subsidiary that is the recognized market leader.
On-Net
Data
Data represents 22 percent of WorldCom's revenues and
is one of the fastest growing revenue streams. The Company is among the
fastest growing carriers of traditional and virtual private data services.
Data carried over WorldCom's intelligent global network is assured a
single, seamless connection because it never has to leave our network.
Avoiding inefficient transfer of data traffic onto other carriers'
networks means WorldCom customers benefit from a higher quality of service
and at greater cost savings. This On-Net service is available today in 5
continents around the globe.
Broadband
Strategy
WorldCom is extending the reach of its On-Net
strategy through an aggressive deployment of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
-- and later through Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Services (MMDS)
and other wireless data technologies.
DSL today
is leading WorldCom's broadband access strategy. WorldCom is assembling
one of the largest nationwide deployments of DSL to offer high-speed,
integrated access to data and the Internet to small and medium-sized
businesses. DSL can vastly improve a company's production by allowing
every employee — even those in home offices — to download multiple forms
of data, voice and video.
WorldCom, together with Rhythms NetConnections, a DSL-based,
broadband communication services provider, has announced plans to deliver
voice over DSL, so that companies can capitalize on new broadband access
technologies to access voice and data over a single integrated access
line.
MMDS will
expand our overall broadband service offerings and complement our existing
DSL assets. WorldCom acquired several MMDS companies in 1999 and plans to
use these assets to offer a high-speed alternative to meet customers' data
needs. MMDS can serve a large geographic area with a modest upfront
investment and is particularly well suited for rural areas, small towns
and suburbs. It supports speeds ranging from 128 Kbps to 10 Mbps — and to
transfer a 10 megabyte file on a "dial-up" speed of 56 Kbps modem takes 24
minutes. At 1.54 Mbps, the time is reduced to less than a minute.
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