The FCC has released its latest telephone competition report which summarizes information about telephone services as of June 30, 2013. Report data is collected using FCC Form 477 data submitted by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), and mobile telephony providers. The report also contains subscribership data collected from interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers. This year’s report demonstrates continued growth in interconnected VoIP and mobile telephony service subscribership and continued decline in traditional wired telephone services subscribership. As of June 2013, there were 441 million retail local telephone service connections in the United States. Of these, there were 90 million end-user switched access lines in service, 45 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 306 million mobile subscriptions.
Of the 135 million wireline retail local telephone service connections (including both switched access lines and interconnected VoIP subscriptions) in June 2013, 77 million (57%) were residential connections and 58 million (43%) were business connections. From June 2010 to June 2013, interconnected VoIP subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of 16%, mobile telephony subscriptions increased at a compound annual growth rate of 3%, and retail switched access lines declined at 10% a year.
