BOSTON -- North American service providers' capital expenditures totaled $48.2 billion in 2003, 22% less than in 2002, according to Infonetics Research's latest market research report, Quarterly Service Provider Capex Analysis, North America 2004.

"As capex was cut 22% last year, North American service providers returned to sustainable norms, spending 14.3% of their revenue on capex," said Kevin Mitchell, directing analyst for Infonetics Research and lead author of the report. "MSOs will continue significant capex cutting this year, but the other segments will be plus or minus a few percentage points, resulting in a total reduction of just 2% between 2003 and 2004, from $48.2 billion to $47.4 billion. The severe aggregate capex cuts are behind us, and service providers are transitioning capital budgets to next generation technologies to introduce new service offerings and promote revenue growth."

Public Wireline North American Service Provider Highlights

Infonetics Research's report tracks public wireline service providers (Canadian ILECs, RBOCs, CLECs, IOCs, IXCs, ISPs, and MSOs) headquartered in North America, presenting revenue, capital expenditures, and capital expenditure-to-revenue ratios by individual service provider and by service provider type. Capital expenditures per provider type are presented in eight separate categories: access aggregation equipment, CPE, ATM/frame relay switches, IP/MPLS routers, optical equipment, voice equipment, and all other telecom and datacom network equipment (e.g., L2/L3 switches and servers), and non-telecom and data network equipment.

The report also tracks the number of DSL subscribers, cable Internet subscribers, and access lines each service provider has, as well as installed manufacturers for IP/MPLS routers, multiservice switches, access aggregation equipment, optical equipment, and voice equipment.

Infonetics Research Inc.