Study: Wireless Carriers Face Stiff Competition

According to a new report from The Cambridge Strategic Management Group, a variety of factors, from over-the-top voice competition to Wi-Fi operators are helping "shift value away from established mobile industry players."

It predicts that Wi-Fi could take an $8 billion chunk out of wireless carriers' revenue by 2016. The report, Signal Strength: Assessing Value Shifts in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry, says "established players can no longer rely on the rising tide of demand to guarantee growth," given tablets, cloud-based services and other disruptive factors. In fact, the report cites a host of threats to the view of incumbent wireless carriers as poised to dominate the market and the bottom line, arguing that one way to defend against over-the-top services like Skype is to offer unlimited voice and messaging.