Verizon and Cingular continue to dominate the market

Mobile Internet, The, July, 2005

Yankee Group analysts predicted continued strong growth in the U.S. B2B wireless market at the 2005 Decision Summit, held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria. Fueling the demand is a mass market for B2B wireless products and services comprised of a growing mobile workforce. Almost 40 percent of all workers in the U.S. can be considered mobile, which translates into nearly 50 million employees.

Enterprises evaluating wireless options predominately choose on price and coverage area. However, as the mobile workforce grows, enterprises have placed new value on wireless cost control and other administrative tools to help manage those expenditures.

Forty percent of respondents place high importance on software that allows mobile phones to replace main office phones, which paves the way for increased growth.

Although clear growth opportunities exist, the enterprise market is dominated by three companies. Cingular continues to lead the B2B market with a 34 percent market share.

For companies with only one carrier contract for all wireless services, Verizon edges out Cingular with a 31 percent market share, compared to Cingular's 30 percent stake. Once completed, the Sprint/Nextel merger will create a third force in the market.

"The number of mobile workers will continue to rise, particularly in companies with between 500 and 2,500 employees," said Gene Signorini, Yankee Group director, Wireless/Mobile Enterprise Solutions.

"Serving those companies creates a tremendous market opportunity for service providers, although the Sprint/Nextel merger will create a Big Three scenario with Cingular and Verizon.

Those three companies will share almost 88 percent of the market."