BOONTON, N.J. -- The global telecommunications industry will return to historic growth patterns beginning in 2004, says a new market analysis report from Insight Research. According to the study, worldwide telecommunications services revenue is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of eight percent from 2004 to 2009, which reflects the level of sustainable growth enjoyed by the telecom segment prior to the technology bubble of the late 1990s.

While the past few years were brutal for the telecommunications industry, The 2004 Telecom Industry Review: An Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts predicts that worldwide telecommunications industry services revenue will grow from $1.2 billion in 2004 to $1.8 billion in 2009, bringing an end to the industry slump. The study examines the underlying reasons for the recent telecommunications industry slump, and highlights rapidly growing industry segments such as VoIP, WiFi and streaming media, technological innovations in fiber optics, DWDM and WDM. The market report also looks at the implications for profitability and sustained growth for carriers and equipment vendors in light of recent primary line losses to cable telephony providers and wireless carriers.

“The malaise of the past few years is finally beginning to dissipate, and while we see a return to historic levels of growth industry-wide, we anticipate that growth will be uneven across various geographic regions and product types,” says Insight Research president Robert Rosenberg. “Asia-Pacific and Latin-America Caribbean are forecasted to enjoy the fastest overall broadband growth while North America and Europe lag. Wireless communications will continue to displace wireline communications for voice calling—and as the number of wireless 2.5G and 3G data services increases, wireless will continue to squeeze traditional land line calling,” Rosenberg concluded.

Insight’s 2004 Telecom Industry Review examines targeted areas of the telecommunications market, including:

Insight Research Corp.